QUENTIN LETTS: Brassed-off Tory backbenchers went BOOM like a line of spigot mortars at their own government over immigration
Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool, Dudley, Ipswich, Penistone and Stocksbridge, Grimsby, much else of Lincolnshire, Derbyshire’s dales, Ashfield, neighbouring parts of Nottinghamshire – even the teacup-clinking Cotswolds and Wildean East Worthing: these were the Conservative areas whose MPs exploded at their own Government over the latest immigration numbers.
If Rishi Sunak doesn’t clock it, he needs digital hearing aids.
When the Commons goes on the offensive you expect opposition MPs to kick up the din. Not this time. Labour, Lib Dem and Scots Nat benches were near-empty. They clearly thought the influx of 672,000 migrants last year to be wonderful news.
But on the Tory backbenches sat a wodge of brassed-off backbenchers banging forth one after another that, ‘THE VOTERS HAVE HAD ENOUGH!’ Boom they went, like a line of spigot mortars. Stoke North’s Jonathan Gullis complained that one day Rishi Sunak embraced a ‘full-fat’ policy for controlling immigration, the next day he adopted a more ‘skimmed milk’ policy of telling businesses they will be able to have work visas. Mr Gullis was ‘deeply concerned and confused’ by No 10.
Ashfield’s Lee Anderson, despite being a Tory party deputy chairman, joined the pile-in
Stoke North’s Jonathan Gullis complained that one day Rishi Sunak embraced a ‘full-fat’ policy for controlling immigration, the next day he adopted a more ‘skimmed milk’ policy of telling businesses they will be able to have work visas
Ipswich’s Tom Hunt was as close to mooing beef as you can get without ordering steak tartare. On the problems of immigration it was ‘a shame many people don’t get it’. This was aimed at Mr Sunak and his advisers. ‘Urgent, radical action is needed now,’ bellowed Mr Hunt to cheers.
Ashfield’s Lee Anderson, despite being a Tory party deputy chairman, joined the pile-in. That self-styled mastermind of the Right, Sir John Hayes (South Holland and the Deepings), about whom there is a hint of henna hair dye, talked of the ‘unholy alliance of greedy globalists and guilt-ridden bourgeois liberals’ encouraging immigration. More shaking of pitchforks from his pals. All of which could have been tricky for the immigration minister Robert Jenrick, but was not. That surprising redhead Sir John cried ‘we are relying on him because we know he shares our concerns’. Sure enough, Mr Jenrick firmly asserted high immigration was wrecking ‘national unity’.
Odd to think that Rishi originally sent Mr Jenrick to the Home Office to keep an eye on Suella. Now, without her populism but with more parliamentary skill, he has established himself as the new Braverman. He never resorts to lurid language and doesn’t waggle his hips at the Tory membership. Mr Jenrick has lost weight recently. They tend to do that when they’re on the rise.
Yvette Cooper did her gobble-gosh thing of ingurgitating the air in front of her petite beak and wobbling her head, as if trying to get the marble in the hole. The House no longer listens. Mick Whitley, a wheezy Labour bloke from Birkenhead, expressed ‘solidarity’ with immigrants.
Ipswich’s Tom Hunt was as close to mooing beef as you can get without ordering steak tartare
That’s odd, said Jenrick, because when there was a possibility of asylum seekers being housed in Birkenhead, old Whitley kicked up a fuss. Fancy that! Earlier in the day the culture select committee quizzed two top bods from Channel 4.
Its programmes are incorrigibly woke – one of them had Chris Packham egging on Just Stop Oil civil disobedience – but its chief executive, Alex Mahon, turned out to be a kiln-baked capitalist. Paid £1.4million a year despite the channel’s dip in revenue, she is a one-woman reproof to the saying ‘go woke, go broke’. Going woke has made her a fortune.
Alongside sat her chairman, Sir Ian Cheshire, a silk-mouchoired mumbler who could have been secretary of a suburban golf club. Princess of Wales-lookalike Mahon, though, was a piece of work – a few fake, flashed smiles not disguising her devouring interest in the bottom line. When she said the word ‘money’ her muzzle jutted with determination. She lobbied for tax breaks but turned Arctic-icy when invited to forego a bonus after recent drops in the channel’s ad income.
They could make a killer corporate drama about someone like her. Might win back some viewers.
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