Afternoon summary
Veteran SNP MP Angus Brendan MacNeil has been suspended for a week following a row with the party’s chief whip at Westminster. The Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP said he accepted the decision following a reported clash with whip Brendan O’Hara over MacNeil’s attendance record.
Treasury minister Andrew Griffith has told the Financial Conduct Authority that he wants it to act swiftly to ensure that banks are not closing people’s bank accounts because they are politicians.
No 10 says parliament “has a long way to go and a lot of work to do to” to prevent incidents of sexual harassment after BBC’s Newsnight broadcast a report saying that it remains rife in Westminster.
Downing Street insists its asylum policy is “fair and compassionate”, rejecting criticism from Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and other faith leaders of its illegal migration bill.
No 10 said in its post-PMQs briefing that it’s committed to cutting NHS waiting list, but cutting long waiting times takes priority.
The Cabinet Office is expected to learn on Thursday whether it has won its legal challenge to the UK Covid-19 inquiry chair’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries, according to PA Media.
Oliver Dowden and Angela Rayner went head to head at PMQs while Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer attended a service in Westminster Abbey to commemorate 75 years of the NHS. Mhairi Black, the deputy leader of the SNP at Westminster, got the most laughs for suggesting that Dowden was also likely to be leaving parliament at the next election.
John McDonnell accused Keir Starmer of being on a “search and destroy” mission against the left in his party in an interview with BBC’s Newsnight.
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Veteran SNP MP suspended for a week
Veteran SNP MP Angus Brendan MacNeil has been suspended for a week following a row with the party’s chief whip at Westminster.
The Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP said he accepted Westminster leader Stephen Flynn’s decision following a reported clash with whip Brendan O’Hara over MacNeil’s attendance record.
“Stephen has his views and I have mine, but as leader he has his own pressures to balance and I accept the decision he has taken,” he said.
Guido Fawkes, the online blog, reported a public row in the division lobby when MacNeil called O’Hara “a small wee man” several times before throwing official letters about missed Commons votes back at him and storming off.
MacNeil, who is one of the SNP’s longest-serving MPs, has been an outspoken critic of the party leadership in recent years, in particular over what he considers its timid independence strategy, and is known to be a close ally of former first minister Alex Salmond.
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