The Donald was given a free go by Labour MPs over Ukraine peace settlement. Why are they so moist? QUENTIN LETTS watches PMQs…
Reform sustained some damage in the Commons for its ‘pro-Putin’ stance. Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch biffed hard at Nigel Farage’s party, whose former leader in Wales was recently sentenced to ten and a half years in prison for taking Moscow bribes.
Backbench Labour MPs spoke of ‘treason’ and ‘treachery’. Torcuil Crichton (Western Isles), a quiet lad suddenly full o’ fecht, railed against ‘the Lord Haw-Haws paid by Putin’.
These exchanges took place at lunchtime. Mr Farage (Clacton & Savoy Grill) was neither in, nor under, his seat. At the start of the session there were two Reform MPs on parade but one, Lee Anderson (Ashfield), soon legged it.
That left Richard Tice (Boston & Skegness). Labour MPs yowled abuse at him and demanded that Reform investigate its membership for more Kremlin sympathisers. Mr Tice, who explained that he himself had donated a five-figure sum to Ukrainian aid, looked far from comfortable.
We like to think the Commons is a forthright place where MPs say what they think. But if MPs felt so strongly about Farage’s outfit being soft on Putin – which may indeed be the case – why were they not equally indignant about Donald Trump?
After all, his original 28-point peace plan might just as well have been dictated down the telephone from whichever bunker V. Putin has been using in recent days. Yet Mr Trump attracted little criticism. Nor did MPs take aim at the various pro-Russia bandits in his circle. Why are our parliamentarians so wet? In Erich Honecker’s East Germany it was rare, at the Volkskammer, to hear criticism of L.I. Brezhnev. Is that now the level of our Commons?
Sir Keir had arrived at 12.30pm to discuss foreign affairs. As he was on his feet, reports started to appear on news wires of some sort of Ukrainian acceptance of a revised US peace proposal. This led to an interesting spectacle of Sir Keir being passed notes from nearby civil servants.
The PM had to read these handwritten updates while answering MPs’ questions. Sir Roger Gale (Con, Herne Bay) wanted the session suspended while the PM caught up on the latest news. Speaker Hoyle would not agree to this.
Even Dame Emily Thornberry gave US President Donald Trump an easy ride
Sir Keir was sceptical that anything had changed since his last conversation, four hours earlier, with Ukraine’s President Zelensky.
Sir Keir handled the rolling situation rather well. He also, with unusual colour, contrasted the birthday party he had held on Monday night for his 15-year-old daughter with the suffering that same evening in Ukraine of a similarly-aged girl, bloodied in a Russian attack that killed her mother.
The closest Sir Keir came to denouncing Mr Trump was when he said some parts of the 28-point plan were ‘so obviously unacceptable that it shouldn’t have been put forward as a serious proposition’. It would obviously be naive to expect the PM himself to slag off the US President but surely some of his backbenchers could do it for him. It’s certainly what they think of the man. And would that not actually help Sir Keir? Washington would see that it was losing democratic support in Britain.
But no. Even Dame Emily Thornberry (Lab, Islington S) gave Trump a free pass. What a pity. Dame Emily is arguably our nation’s most magnificent old trout. Dame Emily versus The Donald would be a tremendous bout. Britain looked to the dame to have a go. And she funked it!
One or two were braver. Sir Roger said not even 42 years in the Commons had given him enough mastery of sycophancy to deal with Mr Trump. The Lib Dems’ deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, who was wearing a pair of clown shoes, had a minor moan; ditto Tory MP Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin); and the Greens’ Ellie Chowns. But that was it.
Mr Trump has become that terrible thing: the grotesque great-uncle with his flies undone whom no one dare upbraid; the playground thug no one will challenge; the maitre d’ so rude that diners cower. How shrivelling.
