Skittish ministers totter around as if balancing on champagne flutes
THE anticipation of a leadership contest makes for a febrile atmosphere around Westminster. Here in lame-duck land, Theresa May’s potential successors totter around Parliament like they’re balancing on champagne flutes.
Ministers are skittish. Jittery. They are all too aware that one crisis in their department, however minor, can torpedo a campaign before it has even begun.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, a well-fancied (and according to my bookmaking connections well-backed) candidate found himself in the unwelcome glare of public opprobrium on Saturday when a mother, Emma Appleby, had £4,000 of cannabis oil seized at Southend airport which she had procured in the Netherlands to treat her nineyear-old daughter’s epilepsy.
Emma’s daughter, Teagan, who is unable to get the oil prescribed in the UK, suffers up to 300 fits a
day. Their plight prompted an urgent question yesterday from Sir Mike Penning (Con, Hemel Hempstead). For a wet Monday afternoon, it drew quite a crowd to the chamber.
Penning has an uncompromising air which befits an ex-Grenadier Guardsman. Face like a bag man for the Kray twins. Voice harder than a coffin nail. It was a disgrace, he said, that families such as the Applebys were not able to get a cannabis prescription in this country.
Hancock rose to his feet, fidgeton ing defensively with his pencil-thin tie. Up until now, his ministerial record has been as unblemished as a Revlon model’s cheekbones. This was an awkward test for the ambitious young shaver.
Fortunately for him, he seems honourably ineligible for the struggles of self-doubt. He gripped the dispatch box firmly, absorbing the emotive swell around him.
In a Cabinet made up of some very dull grey men, Hancock is one of its better performers.
First up from the Labour benches came Diane Abbott (Lab, Hackney North and Stoke Newington), not necessarily the worst opponent to have. What the Applebys had had to go through, she announced, was ‘shameful’. She then reeled off a list of questions delivered with all the eloquence of a tripe sandwich. Hancock had already addressed most of her queries but it was possible she hadn’t been listening.
Passions ran high on both sides of the House.
Michael Fabricant ( Con, Lichfield) asked why illegal drugs such as heroin and ketamine are routinely used medically but cannabis prescription carries such ludicrous restrictions.
Tonia Antoniazzi (Lab, Gower) hollered it was ‘intolerable’ how families with epileptic children were being treated. Vicky Ford (Con, Chelmsford) chose to remind members about long-term psychosis caused by cannabis use. Eek! This was a debate about medical cannabis, not smoking wacky baccy. Unseemly remarks were hurled at Mrs Ford like custard pies. She seemed determined to make her point anyway.
Ben Bradshaw (Lab, Exeter) was an ill-tempered presence throughout proceedings. ‘Disgrace,’ he kept shouting, among some other far less parliamentary language.
For an urban sophisticate, Mr Bradshaw has been quite the grouch. Perhaps he has designs on being the next Dennis Skinner. OF
course, it would be unthinkable for a session to pass without a totally superfluous interjection from the Speaker’s chair.
Yesterday’s came when Hancock took a query from ex-business minister Richard Harrington (Con, Watford), who resigned a fortnight ago over the Government’s refusal to rule out a No Deal Brexit.
The Speaker expressed astonishment Hancock had chosen not to pay tribute to Harrington and thank him for his service. This is a customary gesture, though one which barely seemed important during a hugely sensitive debate about treating people with severe epilepsy.
Later, when Hancock similarly failed to acknowledge ex-Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris, who stood down last week because of his opposition to extending Article 50, the pro-EU John Bercow failed to kick up a fuss about it.
Might that have had anything to do with Heaton- Harris being a Brexiteer? Discuss.