Theresa May fluffs her feathers on the backbenches
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Theresa May, who has been considerably more interesting as a backbench MP than as the actual Prime Minister, was packed full of flak for Boris Johnson yesterday.
The ex-PM defied the three-line whip dished out by Johnson over a motion to give disgraced former MP Owen Paterson a a break and rewrite rules on Westminster standards.
Yesterday, May said No10’s decision to “aid and abet” Paterson’s attempt to clear his own name was “misplaced, ill-judged and just plain wrong”.
Both the PM and a sheepish Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted it perhaps wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
The Government was forced to watch their decision be torn apart for another day in the Commons yesterday after troublemaker Tory Christopher Chope refused to wave a motion finalising the Paterson U-turn. Chope, who caused fury among his peers for his intervention, continued to make friends by telling a fellow MP to “apply her mind”.