Our fifth exchange in this house...any more and she will be claiming residence!
DEPUTY Prime Minister Oliver Dowden took full opportunity to exploit Angela Rayner’s housing row at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The two deputy leaders faced off as Rishi Sunak visited European allies.
Ms Rayner tried to spike Mr Dowden’s inevitable jokes about the row that has sparked a police investigation, saying: “I know the party opposite is desperate to talk about my living arrangements, but the public wants to know what this government is going to do about theirs.”
Reform
But Mr Dowden joked: “It is a pleasure to have another exchange with the Right Honourable lady in this house. Our fifth in 12 months. Any more of these and she’ll be claiming it as her principal residence!”
Mr Dowden took aim at Ms Rayner’s plan to abolish anti-union legislation, which he claimed would “sweep away the reforms that made this country great”.
He quipped: “We all know the one Margaret Thatcher reform that the Rt Hon Lady would not abolish: the right to buy your council house!” He added: “She once said, ‘you shouldn’t
be waiting for the police to bang on your door. If you did it then you shouldn’t be doing your job’. The Rt Hon landlady should forget her tax advice and follow her own advice!”
Ms Rayner said she had read that Mr Dowden urged Mr Sunak to call an election “because he’s worried they might get wiped out”.
She added: “Has he finally realised that when he stabbed Boris Johnson in the back to get his mate into No 10, he was ditching their biggest vote winner for a pint-sized loser?”