Wisecracking May announces new treaty with Jordan for Qatada deportation

So in spite of great excitement beforehand, Theresa May didn’t confirm that the UK will seek a temporary withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Instead, she announced a new treaty – a mutual legal assistance agreement – with Jordan in order to enable Abu Qatada’s deportation. This wasn’t nearly exciting enough for Tory MPs, who started demanding that the UK ignore the Convention and jolly well put Qatada on a plane today. May decided the best way to respond to this would be to crack a joke using Mark Reckless’ surname while explaining to him why the government must abide by the laws to which it is currently subject. The Home Secretary’s historic first attempt at a wisecrack in the Chamber did not go down well, though, given she’d picked on an MP who, in spite of his useful surname, is pretty cheesed off with her particularly after she and fellow Home Office ministers managed to avoid an awkward vote on the deportation of foreign criminals.