SNP MP Gavin Newlands has been accused of calling Tory MPs Scott Benton and Tom Hunt “absolute scumbags“, with the moment picked up on the Commons microphones as Alison Thewliss read out her War and Peace-length intervention during the Illegal Migrant Bill debate last night. Guido has enhanced the audio for co-conspirators’ listening pleasure…

Newlands also took to Twitter to attack Benton and Hunt again, claiming they’d laughed at him for expressing “security concerns for [his] staff”. Tom Hunt tells Guido this is incorrect, and “there is no place for that kind of hate filled language”:

“I forget what me and Scott were talking about but it had nothing to do with the Thewliss speech or the intervention from Newlands. Before we knew it I looked up and a number of MPs were looking at us like they wanted to throttle us […] We had no idea what they’re going on about. Then all of a sudden one of the SNP MPs shouted “scum” at us. Sadly there are a small group of SNP MPs who continually bizarre in an inappropriate way in the chamber and hurl abuse at opponents. This was a continuation of that. The Chamber can get heated and I myself can be vocal. But there is no place for that kind of hate filled language. Particularly when me and Scott aren’t even guilty of what Newlands is accusing us of.”

To be fair to Newlands, it’s not the first time this language has cropped up in the Commons. Just ask Angie…