Did MP’s daring dress really deserve a Commons commotion?
HER off-the-shoulder dress seemed a tad risque for the Commons and was perhaps more suited to the Rovers Return.
But Coronation Street actress turned MP Tracy Brabin has hit back after she suffered online taunts over her choice of outfit at the despatch box.
The Labour culture spokesman, 58, was subjected to a flurry of critical remarks after a photograph of her baring her right shoulder was posted on Twitter with the question: ‘Is this really appropriate attire for Parliament?’
Others commented ‘Put some clothes on love, you look like a tart!’ and ‘Trying to work out if Tracy Brabin is on her way out or on her way back from clubbing! How have parliamentary standards fallen so low?’ One Twitter user cruelly asked: ‘ Is she showing solidarity with aging hookers in her constituency?’
Another added: ‘Even in the school I work in 6th formers have a smart dress code. If they came in dressed like that, they’d be sent home to change!’ Yet another detractor wrote: ‘She thinks she is hot, but unfortunately not.’
Miss Brabin replied to the tweets: : ‘Sorry I don’t have time to reply to all of you commenting on this but I can confirm I’m not....
‘A slag, Hungover, A tart, About to breastfeed, A slapper, Drunk, Just been b****d over a wheelie bin. Who knew people could get so emotional over a shoulder...’
Miss Brabin was raising a point of order on Downing Street’s decision to block certain journalists nalists from a briefing on Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans when she spoke at the despatch box wearing the outfit shortly before 6pm on Monday.
The MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire was promoted to shadow culture secretary last month in Jeremy Corbyn’s minireshuffle following the election.
She entered Parliament in October 2016 in a by-election, succeeding her friend Jo Cox, who was murdered by a far-Right fanatic. During the 1990s, Miss Brabin played downtrodden and debtridden single mother Tricia Armstrong in ITV’s Coronation Street. She also appeared in Outside Edge, Peak Practice and A Bit Of A Do.
According to Erskine May, the parliamentary guide to rules and procedure, MPs ‘should dress in businesslike attire’.
It adds: ‘The wearing of military insignia or uniform inside the Chamber is not in accordance with the long-established custom of the House.
‘More relaxed standards of dress are accepted for Members simply going through the division lobbies in order to vote. The Speaker has indicated that Members must not in principle have their face covered while voting in a division since they must identify themselves to the tellers.’
In 2017, then Speaker John Bercow lifted a long-running rule that required male members to wear neck-ties in the chamber.
The row over Miss Brabin’s choice of clothing comes after the new Commons Speaker announced last week that breastfeeding will not be banned in Parliament.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle said that it was ‘up to a mother’ whether she chose to feed her baby in the House of Commons chamber or committee rooms.
‘Attire should be businesslike’