Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan criticised by consecutive health secretaries for her ‘tone’

Labour’s Rosena Allin-Khan has been criticised for her “tone” for the third time in two years, by another health secretary.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, health secretary Sajid Javid said she had “misjudged the tone of this house” after she asked the minister whether he would extend the use of masks to hospitality settings, queried how the government would enforce it, and criticised Boris Johnson and Conservative backbenchers for not always being the first among us to reach for their face coverings.

It is of course not the first time the shadow minister for mental health, who is also a doctor, has been slapped on the wrist about “tone”.

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In May 2020, the then health secretary Matt Hancock (anyone know what happened to him? ) said “she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state’s book in terms of tone” after she questioned him on whether “a lack of testing” had “cost lives” during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, in July this year, Allin-Khan challenged Helen Whately, the then social care secretary, after stating that NHS staff had been sent “like lambs to the slaughter without appropriate PPE to work.”

Whately replied:“I just would say it is clearly very important the things we say in this chamber and they have ripples beyond this chamber.

“And so the tone of what we say, I for one certainly consider is extremely important.”

Reacting to the latest “tone” incident, people couldn’t believe another health secretary had questioned Allin-Khan’s manner of speaking.

And Allin-Khan herself called it “tone-policing” and compared it to the Hancock incident.

Indy100 has contacted Javid and Allin-Khan to comment further on this story. We will watch the tone of their replies carefully.