Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs can no longer stomach government by decree

Photo by UK Parliament

Monday night’s Commons debate showed the extent of Tory backbench frustration with ministers over their refusal to consult parliament on increasing coronavirus restrictions. But it also showed that the situation isn’t beyond repair. MPs were blunt in their criticism of the government but were also polite and clearly keen to avoid a stand-off. Parliamentarians just want the government to move to a new phase of managing the pandemic; one involving greater scrutiny. 

Almost everyone who spoke in the debate took care to praise ministers for dealing with an unspeakably difficult situation. Aside from Desmond Swayne, who fulminated that Boris Johnson may have been ‘abducted by Dr Strange-glove’, most Tories weren’t angry but rather anxious about where things were going. 

MPs resent ministers assuming that they are doing the right thing

Steve Brine, for instance, was aggressively supportive of his ministerial colleagues for the scale of the challenge they were facing, complaining that too many people were demanding certainty when that simply wasn’t possible.

Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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