Steerpike Steerpike

Yvette Cooper fails to practise what she preaches

Yvette Cooper was the surprise star of PMQs today after she made the Prime Minister squirm with a stinging question about Theresa May’s election U-turn:

‘The Prime Minister yesterday said she was calling a general election because Parliament was blocking Brexit. But three quarters of MPs and two thirds of the Lords voted for Article 50 – so that’s not true, is it. A month ago she told her official spokesman to rule out an early general election, and that wasn’t true either, was it.

She wants us to believe she is a woman of her word. Isn’t the truth that we cannot believe a single word she says?’

While her words appeared to do the trick in the Chamber, Mr S can’t help but wonder: is Cooper herself a woman of her word? Steerpike couldn’t help but think back to Cooper’s own promises.

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