Chris Clarkson called ‘scum’ by Deputy Labour leader when speaking in House of Commons

Chris Clarkson MP was interrupted while speaking in the House of Commons

The deputy leader of the Labour party has been accused of calling Chris Clarkson, Conservative MP for Heywood and Middleton, “scum” in the House of Commons.

As Mr Clarkson paused when addressing the house in a heated debate, a voice from the front bench shouted “scum” – believed to be that of Ashton MP Angela Rayner – after he criticised Labour’s opposition to the government’s handling of the pandemic. Mr Clarkson had been speaking about Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s negotiations with government.

Following the audible heckling, Mr Clarkson broke off from his speech to ask: “Excuse me, did the honourable lady just call me scum?”

The deputy speaker, Eleanor Laing, immediately intervened by shouting “order” saying: “From the frontbench we will not have remarks like that, not under any circumstances, no matter how heartfelt it might be, not at all.”

Following the exchange, Mr Clarkson wrote a letter to the Labour MP, asking her to apologise for the remarks, saying: “While I strongly believe in the privilege of freedom of speech in the Chamber, it must be tempered with responsibility. During my contribution, I expressed my disappointment that your party has seemingly put aside its promises of “constructive opposition”, in favour of the same divisive politics the British public voted to put aside.”

He added: “It's disappointing but not surprising - I'm afraid every so often the mask slips. As elected leaders, we should set an example. This kind of behaviour helps no one and achieves nothing."

Ms Rayner is understood to have later apologised in a statement saying: “I apologise for the language that I used in a heated debate in parliament earlier.”

Mr Clarkson was one of six Greater Manchester Conservative MPs who signed a letter to Mayor Andy Burnham, asking him to  ‘consider his position as a negotiator for the region’ after the government and Northern leaders reached an impasse on Tier 3 funding.
 

Read more: GM Conservatives split as party moves to heap blame on Andy Burnham for failure of Tier 3 talksPublished: 21 October 2020

Despite asking for £90m to cover an 80% furlough scheme, it is understood the region was prepared to accept a £65m deal – but the government’s maximum offer was £60m.

A figure of £22m was announced for the contact tracing and enforcement settlement and is comparable with the amount per person offered to other regions - in Merseyside this was £14m and £12m in Lancashire.

Greater Manchester is facing Tier 3 restrictions from Friday 23 October.