The tributes for Sir Kim flowed like hot syrup

Are MPs getting a touch sanctimonious over the fate of ex-Washington ambassador Sir Kim Darroch? For the second time this week, an urgent question was raised over the leak of diplomatic cables which led to his resignation, prompting members to work themselves into yet another lather of outrage.

Certainly, Sir Kim’s defenestration does appear to be a case of a diligent public servant losing his job over a malicious act of political sabotage.

Such unfortunate occurrences, though, are hardly uncommon in public life. In Westminster, members think nothing of torpedoing a colleague’s career through similar ruthlessness.

The urgent question was brought by Pat McFadden (Lab, Wolverhampton South east). Gooey tributes to Sir Kim flowed like hot syrup, many coming, I dare say, from people who’d never even met the fellow. It was like group therapy for politicos.

Once again, it fell to Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan to do the honours in Jeremy Hunt’s absence.

Sir Alan is an exotic bird of rare plumage. Beautifully cut suits; silk ties; neatly coiffed hair. As he entered the chamber, you could almost see trails of expensive eau de parfum flowing in his wake – something Trumper’s of Mayfair had just knocked up, perhaps.

Sir Kim’s resignation was a matter of ‘deep regret’, he said, pausing theatrically as he conjured the necessary superlatives. ‘He brought dispassionate insight and directness to his role.’

Gosh, it sounded like he was delivering a funeral oration. At

one moment, Sir Alan puffed out his cheeks as though overcome with emotion. But no, he had come to praise his fellow knight – not bury him.

There was an unruly din during the opening exchanges coming from directly beneath my eyrie. ‘Disgrace!’ ‘Shameful!’ ‘Well said!’ A strain of the neck revealed the source to be Paula Sherriff (Lab, Dewsbury) who had got herself needlessly worked up.

In front of her perched a menacing emma Dent Coad (Lab, Kensington). When Sir Alan described Britain’s ambassadors as being ‘Her Majesty’s and Her Majesty’s alone’, I noticed a defiant shake of the head from the MP.

After all, she has described the royal Family as ‘millionaires demanding that we pay for their pleasure while people go hungry’. McFadden said Sir Kim’s resignation was (cliché alert!) a ‘ dark moment for our democracy’.

He attacked Boris Johnson, saying his decision not to back Our Man in Washington was ‘an appalling abandonment of someone in the firing line’. Here, Sir Alan’s upper lip curled with mild satisfaction. Motioning to McFadden, he responded: ‘The right Honourable Gentleman has spoken with authority and wisdom. What he said should be pinned on every wall as an instruction in how to act in public life.’

Sir Alan’s utter loathing of Boris Johnson is hardly a national secret.

It’s possible there are grazing wildebeest on the Serengeti plains who hold members of their local pride of lions in higher esteem.

Opposition MPs goaded him to put the boot in. Wisely, Sir Alan resisted. But, oh, how he enjoyed the flirtation.

‘The House will understand if I hold back today from making any further comment on my right Hon friend the Member for Uxbridge and South ruislip,’ he uttered coquettishly.

Don’t you love his use of the word ‘friend’? All around came urging cries of: ‘Go on!’

A long piece of string from the SNP asked whether Dinky Duncan agreed that Johnson wasn’t fit to be prime minister.

‘I thank the Honourable Gentleman for bowling me such easy balls!’ he replied.

‘I hope he will allow me to defer that a little.’