Tory whips orchestrate new ‘kill team’ to put Corbyn off his stride
A GOVERNMENT aide rebuked by the Speaker for shouting down Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions received whispered instructions from Theresa May’s new chief whip seconds earlier, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.
David Morris was seen leaning forwards from his seat behind Mrs May to listen to Julian Smith before loudly heckling the Labour leader during an attack on the Government’s Universal Credit scheme last week.
The shouting prompted a stern intervention by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, who later warned that “a concerted effort” to shout someone down “is totally undemocratic and completely unacceptable”.
A Conservative MP who witnessed the exchange said Mr Morris’s intervention was a “precision bombing exercise” commissioned by Mr Smith in order to “shout Corbyn down and put him off his stride”. Mr Morris, who is the parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to James Brokenshire, the Northern Ireland Secretary, denied the claim, telling this newspaper that the chief whip “was just passing pleasantries”.
The aide’s intervention is understood to have been part of a wider strategy to help Mrs May at PMQs, amid concerns about her performance. It is being carried out by a group of MPs labelled internally as the “K-Team” – or “kill team”. A separate strand, known as “chamber operations”, now includes a row of female government aides standing in a line near the entrance to the chamber, so the Prime Minister sees “friendly faces” when she turns to her right and both she and television cameras pick up “supportive” expressions rather than “angry jeering”, according to a Tory source.
The exchange between Mr Smith and Mr Morris was not broadcast, as it took place while the television cameras were trained on Mr Corbyn. As Mr Morris shouted and pointed at Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader looked up and paused several times.
Mr Bercow then intervened, saying: “Mr Morris, calm yourself – behave with restraint. You are seated in a prominent position. Quiet.”
Shortly afterwards, when Mr Corbyn was again interrupted by Tory MPs, Mr Bercow said: “The idea that when somebody is asking a question there should be a concerted attempt to shout that person down, is totally undemocratic and completely unacceptable from whichever quarter it comes. I just ask colleagues to give some thought to how our behaviour is regarded by the people who put us here.”
Mr Morris denied being part of a “KTeam” or receiving instructions from Mr Smith. “If I don’t believe what Corbyn is saying, it’s my job to say so,” he said. “At PMQs everyone shouts louder than everyone else. It was my turn to get told off this week.”
A spokesman for Downing Street said: “We do not comment on private conversations.”