Below is the latest missive from my MP and it is as weasely as ever. She implies that the breaking of a pair in the recent close vote was inadvertent. I quote from the subsequent debate:
"My view started to change, however, when I learned that any
mistake was made not by the right hon. Gentleman but by the Chief Whip himself.
It may have been a mistake to cancel the pair, but it was not an inadvertence;
it was a deliberate act. We now understand that the instruction to the right
hon. Gentleman that he should vote came from the Chief Whip himself. The
explanation from the Chief Whip that he did not know this was, as he terms it,
a “pregnancy pair” neither clarifies nor excuses what is a prima facie act of
bad faith. A pair is a pair, whatever its purpose. If the system is to work, it
should be honoured and not broken at the 11th hour."
To reiterate; it was a deliberate act.
Mrs Milton goes on to say that her views are "robust". Unfortunately they do not appear to be sufficiently robust for her to call out this inappropriate behaviour. The silence from her quarter has been deafening. Maybe she was being loyal to her colleague, the Chief Whip, and to her party. Loyalty is an admirable quality but perhaps she should consider whether loyalty to principle, honour and integrity should not over-ride loyalty to party and errant individual.
