Tories mock Welsh MP’s accent in the Commons
CONSERVATIVE MPs have been accused of mocking the accent of Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards.
There was consternation after Tory MPs were said to have made fun of the way he spoke during the debate of the Finance Bill.
Mr Edwards raised the issue with House of Commons Speaker John Bercow. The Speaker said mockery of accents was “wrong” and said Mr Edwards had a “magnificent accent”.
Labour Crewe and Nantwich MP Laura Smith said the behaviour of the Conservatives was “just dreadful”, adding that they had “probably never left the Westminster bubble”.
Gower Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi said the actions were “absolutely disgusting” and turned her fire on Kwasi Kwarteng, the Eton and Cambridgeeducated MP for Spelthorne in Surrey.
On Twitter, Mr Edwards asked if Mr Kwarteng had the “courage to mock my accent to my face”.
However, Mr Kwarteng insisted he had no memory of mocking Mr Edwards’ accent and said he did not find such attempts at humour “particularly funny”.
Mr Edwards said yesterday: “[It] was brought to my attention that a fellow member of this House, rather than engaging with the substance of the issue being discussed, chose to make disparaging remarks about my accent. This is unfortunately not the first incident of this kind in this place...
“Mr Speaker, this House is meant to be representative of all the nations, accents and backgrounds of the British state, and this kind of behaviour only serves to reinforce the privileged and exclusive perception of Westminster politics. Mocking an accent is a very serious matter, as it ultimately undermines an individual’s, or a group of people’s, identity.”
Mr Edwards added that he wanted to put on record that he is “extremely proud to be Welsh and of my accent”.
The Speaker said: “He’s absolutely right to raise the issue... Personal mockery of one another - and members come in all shapes and sizes with a wide diversity of accents, national origins and ways of speaking - is wrong and to many people it constitutes a form of bullying. I am the last person to deprecate good humour in the way in which we interact; I may on occasion myself have caused offence by my extraordinarily ineffective mimicry, for which I apologise...
“Let’s debate the issues, play the ball rather than the man or the woman...
“And by the way, I think he has a magnificent accent and I think the House [is] proud of the honourable gentleman because he is a very good example of someone who debates the issues but does not engage in personal attacks. I’ve known him for many years and I’ve never heard him make a personal attack.”
Mr Kwarteng said: “Look, let me just say - I don’t remember saying anything. I mean, people mock or comment or chunter, whatever the word is, all the time in the House of Commons.
“Now, I don’t remember any particular things about the accent. Someone might have repeated what [he] said. I don’t know anything about that.
“But of course I don’t think that that’s particularly funny.”
Mr Kwarteng said it may have been “what he was saying” that people “might have taken exception to”.
He said: “I don’t know why I’m being singled out. I mean, I don’t remember anything at all.”