Politics

6 of Tory MP's biggest gaffes this week

6 of Tory MP's biggest gaffes this week
First look Matt Hancock and Boy George take on first eating trial …
Indy

Another week has flown by and you know what that means for Britain - Tory chaos.

This week Rishi Sunak lost his first cabinet member and one of his (former) MPs flew to Australia to crawl in the dirt. Aside from that, we've seen the usual terrible takes to broadcasters, some dodgy speeches and even dodgier interviews.

It doesn't give us much faith in the people who are running the country but the comic relief is a silver lining, we suppose.

With that in mind, here's what the Tories got up to this week.

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1. Gavin Williamson resigns over bullying allegations

Williamson was forced to resign from Sunak's cabinet after claims of bullying on the job, including threatening a senior civil servant to “slit your throat” and “jump out of the window”.

Expletive-ridden texts also dropped showing him moaning to former chief whip Wendy Morton about not being invited to the Queen's funeral. Classy.

Then, it emerged he fronted a government anti-bullying campaign two years ago. Oh, the irony.


2. Matt Hancock goes on I'm a Celebrity

The former health secretary ruffled every feather going when it emerged he would be appearing on the ITV reality show not least because by jetting off to Australia he is abandoning his constituents at home.

That is pretty gaffey in itself but we could also write a standalone article about all his gaffes on the show so far - he's sung an Ed Sheeran song, crawled in bugs, and stumbled while crossing a bridge, ate a camel's penis, 'cried' and he hasn't even been on it for a week yet.


3. Boris Johnson says he is "the spirit of Glasgow"

Johnson raised eyebrows in a speech at Cop27 in Egypt, in which he declared himself "the spirit of Glasgow".

"I am the spirit of Glasgow, that is what I am doing here," the former prime minister boasted.

"I am the spirit of Glasgow Cop26 and it is incredible to think how much has changed since that last Cop."

Way to make it all about you, Johnson.


4. Gillian Keegan makes a weird food bank claim

Meanwhile, education secretary Gillian Keegan seemed to dismiss the idea of nurses using food banks this week by implying that people don't use them regularly.

Keegan appeared on Sky News where she was grilled by Kay Burley who asked her why she clapped for the NHS during the Covid pandemic, but doesn't mind seeing nurses seeking help to feed their families.

"Quite often when you go to them, something will have happened...something will have broken down," she claimed.

"Either a relationship or a boiler or anything, they're usually there in an emergency situation."

Er...


5. Kwasi Kwarteng snitches on his old boss

After a disastrous and very short stint as chancellor under Liz Truss, Kwarteng has been keeping his head down.

Until this week, that is, when he appeared on TalkTV to claim he warned Truss about her economic policies that tanked the markets.

After the budget, he said he told her: "We were going at breakneck speed and I said we should slow down.

"She said, 'Well, I've only got two years' and I said, 'You will have two months if you carry on like this'. And that is, I'm afraid, what happened."

He also said: "I think the prime minister was very much of the view that we needed to move things fast. But I think it was too quick."

It didn't go down well, as people thought he was trying to distance himself from a mess he was involved in making.


6. Sajid Javid makes a weird contribution to daytime TV debate

Finally, it emerged that Javid probably has far too much time on his hands now he is on the backbenches this week, when he got involved in a Twitter debate about road safety, in which people were asked to judge whether a driver or a child on a bike was the one behaving irresponsibly on a road.

Almost immediately, he was accused of not understanding the Highway Code. Embarrassing stuff.

What will next week bring? We don't know. But we CAN wait.

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