Justine, the Aid Secretary who did not hear the bell
INTERNATIONAL Development Secretary Justine Greening issued a grovelling apology to David Cameron yesterday after missing the crunch vote because she was lost in conversation in an ‘almost soundproof’ room with another minister.
Miss Greening and Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds, were just yards away from the chamber on Thursday night, and had already voted to help defeat a Labour amendment.
The pair had apparently ducked into a room for an urgent discussion about Rwanda.
Despite the importance of the debate, the pair somehow contrived to miss the crunch vote in which Labour teamed up with Tory and Liberal Democrat rebels to inflict a humiliating defeat on the Prime Minister.
The pair remonstrated with Speaker John Bercow, arguing that the Division Bell, which alerts MPs to a vote, had not been rung.
But Mr Bercow dismissed their complaint – pointing out there was no requirement for the bell to be rung.
And furious Commons officials yesterday insisted that the deafening bell had been rung in the corridor outside the room where the pair of ministers were chatting inside.
Extensive tests of the system yesterday confirmed it was working properly. Hundreds of monitors displaying Commons business were also tested.
A source close to Miss Greening said she had apologised to Mr Cameron for her ‘deeply unfortunate’ absence, which was ‘clearly embarrassing’.
Asked about their absence, Mr Cameron said: ‘This was a technical issue.
‘They had made it for the first vote, they were in a room in the House of Commons where they didn’t hear the division bell. They missed the vote.
‘They have apologised pro- foundly, I have accepted that apology. It wouldn’t have changed the result.’
After voting at 10pm, Miss Greening, 44, and Mr Simmonds, 49, had apparently ducked into the little known ‘Reasons Room’ just behind the Commons chamber for a confidential discussion. The next, critical, vote was scheduled for 10.15pm.
But the pair said the TV monitor displaying Commons business was turned off and they did not hear the division bell outside, or the doorkeepers outside loudly shouting ‘division’ to signal a vote.
Government whips apparently failed to check the room or knock on the door while rounding up MPs to vote. The Reasons Room was the scene of the famous episode in 19 3 when the then Minister for War John Profumo was grilled by
‘Division bells have been tested’
fellow MPs over his relationship with Christine Keeler. A House of Commons spokesman said it was a ‘solidly constructed room with a well-fitting door’.
The spokesman also dismissed suggestions the pair could have missed the vote because of a failure of Parliamentary systems designed to alert MPs to votes.
‘Both divisions [votes] proceeded as normal last night, with division bells and the usual audio/visual indications on the hundreds of monitors around the estate.
‘The division bells have been tested this morning and are working correctly.
The Commons spokesman added: ‘There would have been a lot of activity there around those [meeting] rooms.
‘I think it would have been clear that there had been a division on and those involved would have known there was a division on as well.’