Home Secretary Suella Braverman was brutally slapped down by her Labour counterpart after an astonishing attack on a “Tofu-eating wokerati” and a “coalition of chaos”.
Ms Braverman delivered a theatrical flourish as he rallied against “the kind of characters who glue themselves to roads”.
But she was immediately pulled up on her reference to a “coalition of chaos” – a phrase immortalised by former Prime Minister David Cameron, who quit as the country descended into chaos in 2016.
Yvette Cooper took the opportunity to make barbed references to the Tory leadership crisis as Liz Truss clings to office despite having to backtrack on virtually all of her economic promises.
An animated Ms Braverman, lashing out at “extremists”, reeled off a list of people she dislikes as he pointed the finger of blame at those responsible for disruption.
She told the House of Commons: “I’m afraid it’s the Labour Party, it’s the Lib Dems, it’s the Coalition of chaos, it’s the Guardian-reading, Tofu-eating, wokerati – dare I say the anti-growth coalition that we have to thank for the disruption we are seeing on our roads today.”
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BBC Parliament)
Ms Cooper responded: “It’s astonishing. The Home Secretary actually talked about a ‘coalition of chaos’?
“We can see it in front of us as we speak.”
Ms Cooper continued that she understood government “concerns”, making a pointed reference to the Tory leadership crisis.
The Labour frontbencher said: “When they face issues when they’ve got a selfish minority wreaking havoc, you’ve got someone resisting all attempts to remove them, causing serious disruption, disorder, chaos, with serious consequences for the public, for business, for politics and for financial markets.
“But they’ve glued themselves under the desk. With the honourable members opposite, we wish them luck with their attempts to extricate another failing Tory Prime Minister from Number 10.
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BBC Parliament)
“But I suggest it isn’t a reason to change the law for everyone else.”
Responding to the attack, Ms Cooper accused Ms Braverman of targeting actions that are already against the law.
“We’ve seen certain protests that have angered all of us,” she said. “Defacing works of art is a total disgrace. Blocking roads so you prevent ambulances getting through.is appalling.
“Both of those these are rightly against the law already, we’ve seen people rightly arrested and charged.”
The Public Order Bill makes it a crime to carry glue or a lock with the intention of sticking to a road, expands stop-and-search and bans some people from marches completely.