AN SNP MP was told off by the Speaker after implying the Prime Minister may ennoble a Tory MP accused of being a sex pest.
John Nicolson asked Boris Johnson on his final session of Prime Minister’s Questions who would be on his “lavender list”, a term for the list of people the exiting head of Government makes to be elevated to the House of Lords.
The Ochil and South Perthshire MP asked whether Chris Pincher, who was accused of sexually assaulting two men, would be made a peer before Johnson finally stepped down. Pincher denies the allegations though admitted to being drunk on the night in question, for which he resigned.
But the SNP man was told off by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for what he said was a failure to use “temperate” language.
Nicolson asked the Prime Minister for an “update on his defenestration honours list”.
He added: “How many of his cronies will he ennoble – can we expect him to surpass [former Labour Prime Minister] Harold Wilson with a lavender list of dodgy donors, obsequious courtiers and Pinchers by nature?”
Johnson was accused of having referred to the MP, who had the Tory whip suspended over the allegations, as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature” in what was said to be a knowing wink to historical allegations against him.
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Pincher was the subject of an investigation while at the Foreign Office over similar allegations in 2019, which the Prime Minister was said to have been aware of.
It was his denial of this which ultimately led to the mass exodus of ministers from his government which triggered his resignation.
The Commons breaks for summer recess on Wednesday and a new Tory leader will be elected before the House sits again.
One MP could be heard saying “very poor” after Nicolson spoke and Johnson replied: “I’m sure everybody who has served this government loyally and well deserves recognition of some kind but as for the honours list I’m afraid he’ll have to contain his excitement.”
While the Speaker stopped short of asking Nicolson to retract the question, he said: “We wanted good temperate better moderate language and I don’t think we got it then.”
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