I began Business of the House Questions by raising the shocking deterioration of the situation in Syria. Latest estimates are that 93,000 people have been killed and there is a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis on the border as millions flee.
I continued by raising George Osborne’s latest failure. Last night the chancellor made his speech to the Mansion House in the aftermath of the final report of the banking commission but he’s had nothing to say to the House of Commons. I asked when we can expect a statement on this from the government. Perhaps he’s too embarrassed to turn up since we learned that President Obama called him Jeffrey three times at the G8. There are plenty of names I could think of to call this chancellor… but Jeffrey isn’t one of them.
I then highlighted the fact that the government’s strategy of giving people gongs to keep them quiet is having little effect. On the day after his knighthood was announced Edward Leigh was showing his gratitude on the ConHome website by describing his own government’s legislative programme as: ‘The weakest … in recent memory’. I asked Andrew Lansley if he agreed.
I continued the theme of honours by congratulating Liberal Democrat MPs Andrew Stunell and Ming Campbell on their awards. This means that 14 per cent of the Lib Dem parliamentary party have now been knighted. Meaning that there are more knights on the Lib Dem benches than there are women! At least in this very important respect, the Liberal Democrats are punching well above their weight! I joked that any more of this and the Lib Dem whips’ office will be scouring eBay for a round table.
I finished by congratulating Andrew Lansley and his deputy Tom Brake. With all the disunity in this government, it is reassuring to see that the Leader of the House and his deputy are working together shoulder to shoulder as a great team. At least I thought so until this leaflet came to my attention. It was delivered through a door this weekend. In it Tom Brake is passionately campaigning to save a hospital that his own government are closing. He says: ‘I am calling upon the secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley to meet urgently with me and local councillors to discuss the fate of our hospital.’ He doesn’t seem to know what job his boss does. He apparently can’t get a meeting with him. And he doesn’t seem to be able to defend his own government’s actions to his constituents. I can feel a knighthood coming on!
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Angela Eagle is MP for Wallasey, shadow leader of the House of Commons and writes the weekly Business of Parliament column for Progress. She tweets @AngelaEagle
Wonderful to see another person calling my MP Tom Brake out on his hypocrisy and uselessness. We in Labour locally are fighting hard to save St Helier hospital. Brake has run a petition but refuses to tell us who he plans to submit it to, has attended public meetings and left when public mood goes against him and has recently resorted to sending me bullying emails for reporting to local people what his own activists said to me on my doorstep. Thanks for this piece Angela- it echoes what we have been hearing from local people scared about the threat to our hospital who are frustrated and disillusioned with Mr Brake and his inaction.