Diane’s 4-letter blast at Davis as he tries to kiss her after Commons vote
DIANE Abbott launched a fourletter volley at Brexit Secretary David Davis after he jokingly offered her a kiss for finally backing legislation to take Britain out of the EU.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary is reported to have told Mr Davis to ‘f*** off’ after he attempted a jovial embrace in the Commons’ Strangers’ Bar after Wednesday night’s historic vote to leave the EU.
Mr Davis is said to have walked off laughing. There has been no denial from either party about the incident.
An ally of Mr Davis suggested it had been no more than a ‘jovial’ attempt at an embrace. ‘I don’t think it’s right to say he tried to plant a kiss, and it was perfectly jovial,’ the source said.
But Labour MP Jess Phillips said Mr Davis appeared to have been ‘drunk on Brexit smugness’.
Miss Phillips, who did not witness the incident, said: ‘He wouldn’t do it to David Cameron or George Osborne, so he shouldn’t do it to Diane.
‘It’s unacceptable. Women in Parliament have to put up with all sorts of paternalistic rubbish. If he wouldn’t do it to a bloke, he shouldn’t have done it to Diane.’
Ironically, Miss Phillips told Miss Abbott to ‘f*** off’ during a row over the lack of women in important positions in Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench team in 2015.
She said afterwards: ‘I roundly told her to f*** off’. Asked what Miss Abbott did in response, Mrs Phillips said: ‘She f***** off.’
Miss Abbott, one of Mr Corbyn’s closest allies, faced a furious Labour backlash last week after skipping the first big Commons vote on the Brexit legislation. While fellow shadow ministers resigned to vote against Brexit, Miss Abbott ignored a three-line whip and went home, claiming she had a headache.
The move placed her under intense pressure to back Brexit or resign when the legislation came up for its final Commons vote on Wednesday.
Witnesses said Miss Abbott had to be ‘dragged’ to the voting lobbies by fellow Labour MP Keith Vaz.
Speaking afterwards, she said she believed Brexit would be ‘a disaster’, and had backed it only because she was a ‘loyal supporter’ of Mr Corbyn.
In a statement, she said: ‘I campaigned for Remain and still believe that it is not in our best interests to leave the European Union. Following the decision taken by the Shadow Cabinet on voting for the Article 50 Bill, I voted for the Bill as a loyal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and a loyal member of the Shadow Cabinet.’
Conservative councillor Alan Pearmain has been suspended after retweeting a ‘completely unacceptable’ message which portrayed Miss Abbott as an ape wearing lipstick.
Mr Pearmain, the deputy chairman of the South Ribble Conservative Association, shared a picture of an orangutan which included the strapline ‘get the Diane Abbott look’. He added a comment to the original post which said: ‘Nice lips kid. But a shade too much rouge.’
A party spokesman said: ‘His comments are completely unacceptable and he has been suspended from the party, pending an investigation.’
Mr Pearmain denied that the tweet was racist, telling The Guardian: ‘Can you tell me what’s wrong with the tweet? I thought it was her size and her appearance, nothing to do with colour.’
‘Drunk on Brexit smugness’