Unsurprisingly, yesterday’s most read Guido piece was Zarah Sultana’s brazen maskless hypocrisy at the MOBO awards, where she enjoyed a night of revelling without a face covering just days after complaining maskless Tories in the Commons made her feel “unsafe”. If Sultana comments, no doubt she’ll point out masks aren’t technically mandatory in the setting she found herself.
Unfortunately it appears Zarah may have, in fact, incriminated herself further on TikTok. A video montage of the evening uploaded by the MP shows her arriving and leaving the event in the backseat of what appears to be a taxi without – you guessed it – wearing any face covering. This, on the unmasked face of it, appears to be a breach of the law.
This is more serious than her masklessness at the event itself, given the government explicitly says this is against the law:
Guido has contacted Zarah. He doesn’t expect a response…
UPDATE: Sultana’s office has responded. They claim she was in a private vehicle, not a taxi nor a private hire vehicle. They claim the driver was not paid by any party and the driver was known to the MP. This leaves questions; why was she sat in the back, as in a taxi passenger, and did her same ‘friend’ pick her up from the event as well? Finally, why does she care so little about her “friend’s” health?
On Politics Live this afternoon firecracker Julia Hartley-Brewer and the ever-opinionated Zarah Sultana had a very entertaining bust up over masks. Sultana claimed she feels
“…incredibly unsafe in the chamber when I’m sitting there wearing a mask and I look across the benches and I see most of the Tories not wearing masks. It makes me feel unsafe, it makes my colleagues feel unsafe.”
Julia could not help but laugh in incredulity pointing out that masks were no where to be seen at the packed and crowded Labour Party conference. Guido cannot understand why Zarah feels so unsafe in the House when she is seemingly so at ease whilst at Labour Party conference.
Guido did some digging and found that Covid case rates in Brighton – when the above photographs from Labour Party conference were taken – hovered at around 229.0 cases per 100,000 people. In comparison case rates today in Central Westminster are 181.1 per 100,000 people. Given this, Zarah’s fears seem unjustified.
Sultana’s performative political point scoring has once again been unmasked…
While Labour don’t know whether they’re coming or going on the question of ‘to Plan B or not to Plan B’, the Tories seem to be in an absolute tailspin on the mask question. After noticeably appearing at PMQs en masse without facemasks, Sajid Javid told the nation on Wednesday “we’ve all got our role to play in this”, and it was a “fair point” to note a difference in what Tory MPs are saying and what they’re doing:
During Business Questions yesterday, however, Rees-Mogg pointed to a sub-clause of the mask rule saying they’re needed in crowded spaces “with people that you don’t know”, and given Tory MPs know each other they could avoid the need for masks because of their “convivial, fraternal spirit”.
On Question Time last night we got pulled once again in the complete opposite direction by Andrew Bowie MP, who told the Scottish audience Tory MPs have a responsibility to “set the tone” and lead by example, referring back to the Health Secretary’s words:
This morning on the ministerial morning media round, however, Gillian Keegan both waxed lyrical about the need for individual responsibility and the innate common sense of the British people, however when asked if that put her in the Rees-Mogg school of though she laughed “no… Covid doesn’t look at whether you know someone or not, it’s an infection!”
Everyone clear? Good…
Frustrated staffers plan to ditch face coverings after July 19th despite being “required” to wear them, after Guido revealed that MPs have only be “encouraged” to wear face coverings on the Parliamentary estate since June 21st. Guido also hears that some staffers haven’t bothered waiting until the 19th and have already started ditching face masks on the estate, only wearing them in PCH…
This comes after GMB, TUS and Unite unions wrote a letter to Hoyle explaining that Parliamentary staff have been filled with “incredulity, anger and concern” over the mask hypocrisy that has left Parliament with a distinctly upstairs / downstairs vibe. Unions are pushing for everyone to have mandatory masks, although Guido gets the sense both MPs and staffers want the freedom to make their own minds up…
A joint letter from the GMB, TUS and Unite unions urges the Speaker to make masks compulsory on the parliamentary estate for MPs. Guido revealed that staffers will be made to mask up, whilst MPs will only be “encouraged” to wear face coverings. It is safe to say that staffers are not best pleased…
The letter explains that “the reaction of staff across Parliament has been one of incredulity, anger and concern”. The letter also accuses parliament of failing to “exercise its duty of care to its own employees”. Parliamentary double standards have a distinctly uptsairs / downstairs vibe…
The letter argues that:
“Members also have a responsibility to keep those around them—staff of the House, their own staff and, indeed, other MPs—safe.”
“We would therefore ask you to urgently reconsider the guidance provided to Members so that all staff and members are content that the appropriate measures have been taken to protect their health.”
It will be up to Hoyle to decide whether this double standard is allowed to continue…
UPDATE: Face coverings have not been mandatory for MPs since 21 June, however almost all MPs have chosen to wear masks when on the estate.
