ALEX Salmond was yesterday ticked off by Tory minister Anna Soubry who accused him of sexism after he told her to “behave yourself, woman” in the House of Commons chamber.
The former SNP leader, who was elected as MP for Gordon last month, was speaking during a parliamentary debate on devolution on Wednesday.
Salmond was putting his case for who should sit on the Scottish Affairs Committee, accusing the Conservative Party Tories of trying to “stuff the Scottish select committee with English Conservative MPs”.
He was supporting the SNP’s Pete Wishart who argued the committee should be made up mainly of Scottish MPs, meaning the committee would almost entirely be SNP members as Labour, the Tories and LibDems have one seat each here.
Wishart said the Conservatives’ only Scottish MP, David Mundell, is Scottish Secretary so he could not sit on the committee.
During the debate, Salmond appeared distracted by Soubry, the Small Businesses Ministerwho he has previously locked horns with. He told her across the chamber: “The Treasury bench should behave better in these debates, she should be setting an example to your new members not cavorting about like some demented junior minister — behave yourself, woman.”
Yesterday Soubry responded on Twitter: “Salmond can dish it out but he can’t take it.
“Alex Salmond seems to think women should be seen not heard. His attitude belongs firmly in the 19th century.”
This comes weeks after an an angry exchange between the two on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show during the election campaign.
This week’s exchange provoked remarks from observers, with some supporting Soubry’s view, while others insisted it was a manner of speaking in Scotland.
Women for Independence later Tweeted: “We would observe that well behaved women don’t make history and, for that reason, telling women to ‘behave’ is unacceptable.”
An SNP spokeswoman said: “There is no place for sexism in the House of Commons — and this was not an example of it.
“This was a boisterous but good-natured exchange and the remark was not intended to cause any offence.”
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