Tory MP cut off by speaker for calling Keir Starmer 'smarmy'

Michael Fabricant at PMQs - Credit: House of Commons

Tory MP Michael Fabricant was cut-off by the House of Commons speaker after he branded Labour leader Keir Starmer a “smarmy lawyer”.

The Conservative politician for Lichfield used his question at Prime Minister’s Question to claim the Labour leader was looking to change the rules on Christmas.

He told MPs: “Look, on the subject of Christmas, my constituents in Lichfield and Burntwood and those in the rest of the country have had a torrid year with the covid pandemic, and we have this very small break over Christmas.

“People must use common sense, of course: do not start hugging granny; do not go wild over Christmas; and, as [Johnson] previously said, let us be jolly careful over Christmas.

“I want to say to my prime minister that it would not be helpful if some smarmy lawyer, or somebody now at this late stage, were to argue for a change in the laws. May I ask [the prime minister], here and now, who is neither smarmy nor a lawyer—”

It prompted speaker Lindsay Hoyle to cut the MP off for his long-winded question, telling him: “We’ve got the message!”

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Labour’s Ilford North MP Wes Streeting tweeted: “PMQs begins with Michael Fabricant stealing oxygen that could have been put to far better use.”

Journalist Liam Throp wrote: “Michael Fabricant appearing to call Starmer a ‘smarmy lawyer’ there for daring to raise the issue of preventing deaths over Christmas”.

Birmingham Selly Oak MP Steve McCabe said: “Don’t quite recall Mikey Fabricant’s previous profession but certainly sounded like a DJ filling in time today. So much time to ask his question, so many words and such little point.”