Uh oh. Sir Keir Starmer made a big statement in the Commons today on raising defence spending – but before the Prime Minister could get started, his party faced a rather big telling off from the Speaker about following the ministerial code.
As Lindsay Hoyle explained to parliamentarians, texts of ministerial statements should be provided in advance to the opposition and the Speaker. Slamming the party of government for first redacting parts of the text, the Speaker then attacked Labour over reports that ‘some of the redacted information was provided to the media’ and called for a probe into the matter. Oo er.
Starmer was quick to apologise, insisting to Hoyle:
Mr Speaker, can I begin by giving my word to this House that this was not given to the media? I will absolutely have an inquiry into this, but I would not be that discourteous. I spoke to you this morning, Mr Speaker, I would not be discourteous to you or to the leader of the opposition in that way or to the House. And I give you that assurance from this despatch box, and I apologise to the leader of the opposition, and I will make that inquiry.
Not that all that much was said about the redaction claim though, eh? Watch the clip here:
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