Abbott’s four-letter rebuff for Davis kiss
DIANE Abbott launched a four-letter 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,’ 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.
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 Article 50 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.
As the row over Mr Davis unfolded, Tory councillor Alan Pearmain was suspended after retweeting a ‘completely unacceptable’ image portraying Miss Abbott as an ape wearing lipstick. He denied the tweet was intended to be racist.