Prime Minister's Questions this week turned into even more of a farce than usual as the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle repeatedly ignored Diane Abbott as she rose 46 times to try and get a word in about the racist abuse and incitement to kill her from the Tory party’s biggest donor Frank Hester. A significant portion of PMQs was dedicated to these violent and abusive comments but Hoyle decided not to let the victim speak, instead leaving it to others to discuss the issue on her behalf.
Rishi Sunak made out that the whole issue should be forgiven and forgotten because the perpetrator had "apologised". There are several things wrong with this:
1. It's not Sunak's decision whether to accept an apology or not. Isn't that for Diane Abbott to decide?
2. Anyway, it's a hell of a stretch to portray Hester's statement about his scandalous comments an "apology". It was more of a defensive and self-serving PR exercise in responsibility evasion than an apology. And it didn't even address the main issue that he’d called for an MP to be killed!
3. And then there's the fact that any ordinary person who hasn’t donated £10 million to the Tory party would never be instantly absolved upon a mealy-mouthed "apology for causing offense" if they'd spewed racist abuse at an MP and called for them to be shot. They'd be the subject of near-universal condemnation and a likely criminal investigation.
Watching Keir Starmer using the scandal to score political points was certainly not edifying. We know that his faction of the Labour Party is keeping Diane Abbott suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party with the intention of booting her out of her constituency at the looming general election. And we know that they did absolutely nothing to punish the Labour insiders who bullied Diane Abbott and heaped dreadful racist abuse upon her. All of this was clearly referenced in the highly critical Forde Report which Starmer continues to outright ignore. (In July 2022, Martin Forde KC produced a report on racism and factionalism in the Labour Party. The report had been commissioned by the party leader himself).
It’s nauseating that Hoyle allowed such an obscene spectacle to play
out without allowing the victim of the abuse and threats to get a word in as
Sunak and Starmer used the scandal to push their own agendas and point score at
each other. The excuses Hoyle’s office came up with afterwards are downright ridiculous. They claimed that there wasn’t enough time to allow Diane Abbott to speak! However the session ended at 12:35, and, as has been pointed out by others, the previous
two PMQs went on until 12:39 and 12:43. Surely 8 minutes would have been enough time for a question and a response, and
even if it had taken ten minutes, what would have been the harm if the session
had gone on until quarter to one? The excuse that they "ran out of time" simply does not add up.
Hoyle’s decision denied Diane Abbott the opportunity to speak and prevented her
from highlighting her continued suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party,
and the history of horrific racism and bullying she suffered at the hands of
Labour Party insiders.
In the space of just a few weeks, Hoyle has gone from binning parliamentary
procedure citing threats and abuse of MPs, to citing parliamentary procedure as
an excuse for not allowing the victim of threats and abuse to speak! It’s impossible to look at
a person making absolutely polar opposite justifications for his biased and
outrageous decisions and think that he’s remotely fit to continue doing such an
important job. Time for him to go.
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