An urgent question was granted over government briefings to the media of the Strategic Defence Review. Commons leader Lucy Powell’s response to was to list off examples of when the Tory government did the same…
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge alleged in the Commons that the media and defence industry members received an email from the Ministry of Defence over the weekend saying:
“We will have a reading room open for you from 10:30 am in Horse Guards on Monday. You will have the opportunity to read the full embargoed SDR publication.”
Cartlidge went on to claim that “members of industry were allowed to see the SDR at 10:30. It was only given to me when I entered the House just now.” Speaker Hoyle wasn’t happy:
“I’m very disappointed if members of industry have seen this strategic defence review. Something has fundamentally gone wrong here. I really do believe we need the answers.”
Imagine the outrage if the same thing had happened under the Tories…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”