LABOUR’S disregard for parliamentary rules by announcing parts of their Budget to American news channels is comparable to Boris Johnson lying about partygate, an SNP MP has said.
Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds was hauled before the Commons on Tuesday amid a row after parts of the upcoming Budget were briefed to the media and a major change to the Treasury’s fiscal rules was announced in interviews with the US media by the Chancellor.
The Speaker severely rebuked the Government for the transgression, telling Labour ministers on Monday it was “totally unacceptable to go around the world telling everybody rather than these members”.
Important policy announcements are supposed to be made in Parliament and the Tories have accused Labour of breaking the ministerial code.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle (above) on Tuesday granted the Tories an urgent question to probe whether Rachel Reeves would face any sanction for breaking the rules.
SNP MP Brendan O’Hara compared Labour’s actions with those of the last government, which included Johnson being found to have committed an unprecedented breach of the rules by lying to Parliament over lockdown-busting parties during Covid.
He said the Government’s actions “feeds that public perception that one [party] is as bad as the other”.
O’Hara said: “Those of us who have been in this place for some time will remember the outraged indignation of the now government when they were in opposition every time the now opposition pulled a stunt like this.
“The only constant, Mr Speaker, is you and your efforts to have whatever one of them happens to be power treat this house and its members with respect.
“Can’t the minister see that the Government displaying such arrogant contempt for the rules only feeds that public perception that one is as bad as the other and rather than the change it promised, the Labour Party is really saying it’s our turn now?”
Thomas-Symonds, responding on behalf of the Prime Minister, reacted with outrage and questioned whether O’Hara was comparing the actions of Labour to that of the Tories during Covid.
The SNP MP could be seen mouthing the words “I am” and nodding as the minister said: “[He] can’t possibly be saying there’s any comparison, any comparison with breaching the rules during the Covid pandemic?
“He really can’t, that’s not a serious proposition.”
