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10
Jul
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch denies snubbing Harrogate MP over visit to town
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has denied snubbing Harrogate’s Liberal Democrat MP about a visit to the town last week.
Ms Badenoch and other Tory MPs were at Pavilions of Harrogate on Friday, July 3 to launch the party’s 2027 local elections campaign in Yorkshire, as reported here.
Parliamentary convention dictates that MPs are supposed to notify fellow MPs when they visit their constituencies, except on personal matters.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mr Gordon said:
Most of those Conservative MPs notified me in advance that they would be attending, with one notable exception: the Leader of the Opposition.
Surely we should expect the Leader of the Opposition to set the standards, adhere to them, and make sure that we all know about the leadership that she wants to instil.
Ms Badenoch (front right) at the election launch event in Harrogate.
Deputy Speaker Caroline Nokes replied that the document ‘Rules of behaviour and courtesies in the House of Commons’ says MPs should “take reasonable steps in advance to tell the Member in whose constituency the visit is taking place”.
Ms Nokes added:
The guidance states that a ‘failure to do so is rightly regarded by colleagues as very discourteous’. A party political activity is not a purely private visit, and I hope that by stating this very clearly from the chair, it will reduce the frequency of such discourtesies in future.
The Stray Ferret received an email by North Yorkshire Conservative councillor George Jabbour at 2.58pm last Friday saying Ms Badenoch had addressed party members in Harrogate that day.
Mr Gordon showed us an email, timed at 3.19pm, sent to him by the Conservatives alerting him to Ms Badenoch’s visit.
But when we asked the Conservatives why Ms Badenoch had not been in touch with Mr Gordon, it claimed Mr Gordon was “incorrect” and sent a screenshot of an email from the party alerting Mr Gordon to the visit at 8.23am.
“We will happily reflag this email to Mr Gordon,” a party spokesperson said.
Mr Gordon responded: “At the end of the day it was not received until 3.19pm — we were notified after.”
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