The 86-year-old Labour MP for Bolsover said he wanted to put the SNP ‘in their place’
Veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner has defended swearing in the House of Commons, saying he wanted to put the SNP “in their place” when he branded Stewart McDonald “a piece of shit”.
The Glasgow South MP claimed on Twitter that Skinner, who has represented his Bolsover constituency for 48 years, had “become a thug”, before later raising the matter as a point of order with Commons speaker John Bercow.
Dennis Skinner has refused to back down after calling an SNP MP a "piece of shit"
This is the moment Stewart McDonald formally reported it to the Speaker pic.twitter.com/snKjUlp9RF
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) December 11, 2018
But the backbencher – known as ‘the Beast of Bolsover’ due to his firebrand reputation – was unrepentant about his language, telling reporters afterwards that he was responding to repeated heckling of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by the Scottish nationalists.
“He attacks Jeremy Corbyn every time he stands up and I’ve told him before he is part of the opposition and he should concentrate on attacking the real enemy,” the 86-year-old told the Press Association.
A new parliamentary habit seems to be forming, whereby any time an SNP MP sat behind Dennis Skinner verbalises any frustration about what Jeremy Corbyn says, he angrily turns round to tell us off. He has just turned round and called me a ‘piece of shit’. He has become a thug.
— Stewart McDonald MP (@StewartMcDonald) December 11, 2018
Complaining about the abusive language directed towards him, McDonald told the Speaker he was sworn at after telling a colleague that he wished Corbyn would answer a question.
“It then prompted [Dennis Skinner] to turn around to me and call me a piece of shit,” he said.
“Mr Speaker, he then went on to defend that, telling a journalist that he was ‘just putting me in my place’… Given he shows no sign of having any regret about it, can you just reaffirm that it’s wrong?”
However, Bercow said that he “wasn’t there”, adding that he “wouldn’t presume to comment on a conversation I did not hear”.
There is no love lost between Skinner and SNP members. Back in 2015, the Labour backbencher and the Scottish nationalists were involved in a turf war over Skinner’s long-held seat on the Commons benches leading to him and other Labour queuing up before the chamber opened to put name holders on the seats.
