Reform’s Sarah Pochin was left with egg on her face after an attempted gotcha question towards Labour minister Al Carns.
On Monday, MPs were in the Commons to respond to an urgent question on the impact of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill on armed forces recruitment.
At one point, Runcorn and Helsby MP Pochin stood up to ask Carns if he would “join the British army today if he was a young man making a career choice,” in the seeming hope of catching out the defence minister.
What Pochin clearly did not know about the Birmingham Selly Oak MP is that he is in fact a former Royal Marines officer, something Carns succinctly pointed out to her.
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He simply stood up and said: “No, I’d join the Royal Marines.”
His response prompted laughter and cheers from his Labour colleagues.
Carns, who is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans and People in the Ministry of Defence, joined the Royal Marines in 1999.
By 2010 he had been promoted to major and was made a colonel in July 2021.
In a post on social media, Labour MP Luke Pollard wrote: “If you’re going to come for my ministerial colleague Al Carns, make sure you’ve done your homework.”