Jeremy Hunt slips up

As parliament voted today on an amendment which would make suspending parliament to prevent a no-deal Brexit more difficult, one MP was conspicuously absent from the events.

After the vote it was noted that Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has ruled out proroguing parliament if he becomes the next leader of the Tory party, was listed as having abstained on the key amendment.

It’s unusual enough for such a vital figure to miss an important vote, but most assumed the head of the Foreign Office had at least ‘paired’ himself with a Labour MP, so the result wasn’t affected.

Apparently not though. Hunt explained on Twitter this afternoon that although he thought he had been paired with an opposition MP (so he could be absent), he’d in fact made a mistake.

I missed votes today because I thought I was slipped and it turns out I was not.Apologies to my colleagues & Whips https://t.co/Nlm1Yaen8R position is that parliament should NOT restrict the hands of an incoming govt in this way & I remain opposed to how parl voted

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 18, 2019

How convenient. But even if Hunt’s absence was a simple error, it’s not exactly inspiring stuff from the man hoping to run the country next week…