Labour MP Zarah Sultana repeatedly refused to withdraw the word ‘dodgy’ when describing Grant Schapps and Jacob Rees-Mogg in the House of Commons today.
Deputy speaker Eleanor Laing interjected after Sultana pointed to reports that the transport secretary lobbied to protect airfields from house building.
The Sunday Times reported that Shapps, a keen recreational pilot, set up a team that helped airfields challenge developments.
It reported the Airfield Advisory Team (AAT) had been involved in objecting to home-building plans at a former airfield in Oxfordshire.
House rules
The revelation came after the leader of the House of Commons, Rees-Mogg admitted to encouraging the prime minister to back an amendment to save a former Tory MP from suspension.
Rees-Mogg said that it had been a mistake to conflate the wider issue of standards reform with the specific case involving the former North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson.
But on the wider point of how MPs are held accountable by their constituents, he said the ballot box was not the best place for voters to pass judgement.
“Dodgy”
Raising the two issues in parliament, Sultana said:
“From a dodgy transport secretary to a dodgy leader of the house, this Conservative government is rotten to the core.”
Watch the footage in full below:
Related: ‘Utterly draconian’ bill could allow Priti Patel to remove citizenship without notice
