Labour MP Zarah Sultana brands Grant Shapps and Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘dodgy’ in Commons rant… then REFUSES to withdraw term three times because ‘no other word suffices the corruption of this government’

• The incident happened during business questions in the Commons on Thursday
• MP for Coventry South was referring to accusations that Shapps used public money to create team that lobbied against plans to build on airfield sites
• Commons Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing told her to use a different word
• But Sultana refused three times, eventually withdrawing her remarks, but decided not to re-ask her question with ‘moderate language’

A Labour MP refused to withdraw the word ‘dodgy’ three times in the Commons today, as she claimed she did not think ‘another word suffices the level of corruption and what we have seen from the Government’.

During business questions in the Commons, the MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana, accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg of being ‘dodgy’.

Ms Sultana 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.

During business questions in the Commons, the MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana (pictured , accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg of being ‘dodgy’

‘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?’

Interjecting, Commons Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing told her to think of a different form of words, as she did not like the word ‘dodgy’.

She said: ‘She can make clear she disagrees with what has happened. Perhaps she could put it in different words.’

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’.

Ms Sultana (pictured with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in September) refused to withdraw her use of the word ‘dodgy’, saying ‘another word suffices the level of corruption and what we have seen from the Government’

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’.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps was accused on Sunday of fighting plans by his own Government to build homes on little-used airfields.

Mr Shapps, a keen pilot said to own his own £100,000 aircraft, is said to have used a lobbying body to protect airfields from development.

He disputes claims made in the Sunday Times that he ‘set-up and diverted public money’ to a new team within the Civil Aviation Authority designed to lobby against planning developments that infringe on airstrips.

The Sunday Times reported that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ‘set-up and diverted public money’ to a new team within the Civil Aviation Authority which is designed to lobby against planning developments that infringe on airstrips

The newspaper said objections by the Airfield Advisory Team had helped to frustrate Homes England’s plans for 3,000 homes at Chalgrove, an airfield in south Oxfordshire, while also opposing ambitions to build a battery gigafactory on Coventry airport.

But Department for Transport (DfT) officials said the team was not a lobbying body and instead provided ‘support to general aviation on a range of matters affecting their operations’.

A Government source said: ‘This body is not a lobbying body, it is an advisory body to help general aviation with problems they may have, which may be planning or anything else.

‘It is not essentially anti-housing – indeed, housing can sometimes be a solution for financing an airfield.

‘As Secretary of State for Transport, it is his function to protect general aviation and we’ve seen a decline in the number of airfields across the country.’

A DfT spokeswoman said: ‘It is right that the Transport Secretary works to promote all aspects of the department’s brief including the general aviation sector, which contributes £4 billion to the economy and supports 40,000 jobs, especially as we focus on our recovery from the pandemic and on building a diverse workforce that’s fit for the future.’

The Sunday Times article also suggested Mr Shapps’ flying hobby had ‘undermined’ Government efforts to repatriate Britons after the collapse of travel agent Thomas Cook in 2019, and had taken up ‘valuable time’ while the DfT dealt with post-Brexit and coronavirus travel disruption.

But a source said claims were ‘utterly bogus and demonstrably false’.

He is reported to own a £100,000 Piper Saratoga aircraft similar to the one above

Mr Shapps is believed to have held a pilot’s licence since 1995, before he entered Parliament. 

In 2017, while out of Government, he was elected chairman of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Aviation. On taking on the role he said: ‘Grant Shapps said: “The All-Party Parliamentary Group on General Aviation seeks to be the strong voice in Parliament that general aviation needs to help promote jobs and growth in this country. 

‘We will seek to do this by inspiring young and old to look to the skies to help develop the kind of high-tech jobs and skills we all want to see. I am delighted to have been elected chair and look forward to championing such an important part of our economy.’

He resigned the role on becoming Secretary of State for Transport in place of Chris Grayling in 2019. 

Source: Read Full Article