Wallop! Mrs May stuffs the Pentagon
THe HOMe Secretary’s announcement at 12.36pm was that rare thing, a parliamentary surprise – a genuine ‘abracadabra’ moment. As Theresa May disclosed her decision not to extradite Gary McKinnon, voices on the Conservative benches cried ‘yes!’ and there was even a crackle of (forbidden) applause.
Delight on the Labour benches was, let us say, less evident. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper lemon-sucked her gums and crossed her arms, Little Miss Petulant. Former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson, practically a spongeman for the American embassy, succumbed to a muttering bate.
David Burrowes (Con, enfield Southgate), Mr McKinnon’s constituency MP, had threatened to resign as a ministerial aide if the decision went the other way. He was almost winded by Mrs May’s clemency.
Mr Burrowes had entered the Chamber seven minutes earlier and stood near the civil service box, talking glumly to allies. Watching him, I concluded that Mr McKinnon would soon be on a jetliner heading to the United Dang States. Mr Burrowes looked sad. Rueful. Bruised. In my notebook I wrote ‘ McKinnon’s a goner’.
Former Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan stood close by offering what looked like words of consolation. Mr Burrowes took his seat on the very back bench, in an area normally occupied by Tory right-wingers. He was quickly joined by the likes of David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden), Nick de Bois (enfield N), David TC Davies (Monmouth) and other independent-minded toughs. They were rallying round their friend. Lady Browning (Con), who has a son with Asperger’s syndrome, watched from the peers’ gallery.
Then Mrs May uttered her verdict. After an agonising couple of preliminary paragraphs, she referred to Mr McKinnon’s mental health and said, without flourish: ‘I have withdrawn the extradition order.’ Wallop. Westminster 1, Pentagon 0. Delight for most Tories. Much chewing of the air by West Hull’s Mr Johnson.
Mr Burrowes’s jaw sagged and his mouth hung open for 20 seconds or so. Then, slowly, a smile spread over his face until he was beaming like a TV gameshow dollybird. Westminster traditionalists deplore advance briefings on the grounds that it is disrespectful to the Commons to leak decisions to the media. Be that as it may, there is another good reason for keeping decisions secret until they are made in Parliament: it creates drama in the House. That accentuates a sense of ministerial power.
MRS May benefited politically from this conjuring trick. ProMcKinnon MPs, surprised by her ruling, rushed to praise her. Her opponents were left guppy-fish-gasping, all a-splutter.
Mr Burrowes thanked Mrs May for ‘saving the life of my constituent; today is a victory for compassion and the keeping of pre-election promises’. From John Redwood (Con, Wokingham) to David Winnick (Lab, Walsall N), Mrs May received rave notices. even Islington Leftie Jeremy Corbyn praised her.
David Blunkett was a little grudging, saying ‘given the charged atmosphere, I think we all understand the decision she has taken’. Unlike old Blunkett to be sour! But the real prize for crossness went to Mr Johnson, glowering throughout. He heckled those who endorsed Mrs May’s merciful nature – shouting ‘that don’t make it right!’ – and said that catapulting Mr McKinnon to the US would have been in the British national interest. He even claimed that Mrs May was acting simply out of party-political motives.
I was reminded of an afternoon in November 2009 when I saw Mr Johnson and his special advisers push past Mr McKinnon’s mother in a parliamentary corridor, refusing to let her talk to him. He claimed that I made up the incident. I did not. What on earth is eating the man?
Opposition frontbencher Chris Bryant looked cheesed off, as did his fellow europhile Denis MacShane ( Lab, Rotherham) and Michael ellis (Con, Northampton N), an incorrigible lawyer.
How satisfying that such establishment no- can- do men – figures who so often seem to place the tiniest rubrics of the law above romantic concepts of national sovereignty and simple human decency – were stuffed by a suddenly surgent Mrs May.