IN a bid to squeeze past a defeat on a key Brexit vote yesterday, Tory whips scrapped the usual practice of "nodding through" MPs – they weren't willing to take any of the blame for the impact, though.
The government whips ripped up Commons convention to force sick MPs to go into the division lobbies to register their vote.
"Nodding through" means they don't actually have to go through the division lobby itself. Instead, the Tories made members such as Labour's Naz Shah come into the building in a wheelchair, carrying a sick bowl, in order to vote.
She said to the Guardian: "I was in my pyjamas. It felt personally very undignified and very invasive. It was embarrassing.
"I thought I’d just be able to stay in the back of the car, where I’d made a bed for myself, and be counted there, but the Tories wouldn’t have it.
"By making me go in to vote like that, they stripped me of my dignity."
But the Tories put their training to good use, trying to shift the blame to anyone else, courtesy of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom.
She said it was all Labour's fault for not giving them enough notice.
PoliticsHome put together a clip of Leadsom's response.
"The fact that she had to come all the way from Bradford when she was so unwell is clearly a matter for the Honourable Lady's party.
"It's simply not right to accuse the government of putting her in this position, when the first notice that the government was giving of this was just before midday."
Yes, we're sure the Tories, scrambling desperately to pass the vote, were gutted they hadn't been given enough notice and so some ill MPs might have been deterred from voting against,
Truly gutted.
Usually it's their cruel welfare policies that have the Tories mistreating those who are ill...
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