Zarah Sultana branded Conservative ministers dodgy
Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana was criticised after refusing to withdraw the word "dodgy" three times in the House of Commons.
The Labour Party representative used the word when criticising Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps during the Business Statement yesterday.
Ms Sultana later stood by her choice of words because she did not think “another word suffices the level of corruption and what we have seen from the Government”.
She said: “It has been reported that the Transport Secretary used public money to create a departmental team that lobbied against plans to build on airfield sites, including a giga-factory at Coventry Airport.
“Disgracefully, that would mean he used public funds to lobby against green investment and jobs coming to Coventry.
“And why? We know he is an aviation enthusiast. From a dodgy Transport Secretary to a dodgy Leader of the House who last week tried to rewrite the rules to let his mate off the hook. This Conservative Government is rotten to the core. Is the Leader of the House proud of this shameful record?”
Confusing Madam Deputy Speaker for Madam Deputy Secretary, Ms Sultana replied: “Thank you, Madam Deputy Secretary. I don’t think another word suffices the level of corruption and what we have seen from this Government, so I think that term suffices.”
Dame Eleanor insisted that while “it is absolutely in order to have disagreement here”, we must “moderate our language and be careful of the adjectives that are used about a member by another”.
The MP for Coventry South claimed once again to be “confused” as she could not think of a different word.
Dame Eleanor said it would suffice to withdraw the word “dodgy” to ask her question, but this went ignored, and then the Deputy Commons Speaker seemed to lose her patience.
Raising her voice, she said: “Order! Order! She misunderstands me, I am asking her to withdraw the word ‘dodgy’. I have given her the opportunity to put her question in other words. If she doesn’t want to take that opportunity, she doesn’t have to.
“I am not stopping her from making the point she wants to make or asking the Leader of the House the question she wants to ask and indeed drawing to general attention the points that she wishes to draw general attention. I am asking her to moderate language in doing so. Would she like to put her question in moderate language?”
Ms Sultana finally withdrew her remarks, but decided not to re-ask her question to the Commons Leader with “moderate language”.
Commenting on being asked to withdraw calling Tories “dodgy”, Ms Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry South, said : “I thought I was already being generous by only calling Tory Ministers ‘dodgy’! The public knows this is true – the second jobs scandal has exposed that – and MPs shouldn’t be afraid of saying so.
“These dodgy practices risk costing Coventry, with the Transport Secretary reportedly lobbying to stop billions of pounds of green investment coming to our city. This would deprive us of more than 6,000 skilled jobs. Coventry deserves so much better than this corrupt Conservative government.”
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:22 pm