THERE is no love lost between the Chancellor and the Beast of Bolsover, as anyone present at Treasury Questions yesterday will know. Paul Waugh gives an accurate account of what happened.

But I think I can add some interesting detail to the older incident  to which Paul refers at the end of his piece:

The Bolsover MP has form on this, of course, and regularly says similar things whenever Osborne gets to his feet.

Former Speaker Martin took a much harder line (pardon the pun) back in 2005. Skinner was kicked out of the chamber. In an attack on the state of the economy under Tory governments of the 1980s, he said:

“The only thing that was growing then were the lines of coke in front of boy George and the rest of the Tories.”

I suspect that some Tories found it odd that the current Speaker didn’t formally reprimand Skinner this time around.

There was a rumour around Westminster today that Skinner had indeed been suspended after the event. But the Commons authorities have no record of any such thing.

In fact (and I only found this out yesterday from Dennis himself), the Bolsover MP was indeed asked to leave the chamber after the 2005 incident. But later that day he was visited in his office by a member of Speaker Martin’s staff who asked him to clarify whether or not Dennis had actually named Osborne during the exchange. Well, yes and no. He had only referred to “Boy George” which, technically, is the name of the former Culture Club singer and not the Shadow Chancellor. Having not, therefore, accused an actual Honourable or Rt. Honourable Member of any dubious activities, Dennis had his suspension lifted.

Expect further unpleasantness whenever Osborne’s at the despatch box and Dennis is in his seat.

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