DWP Secretary Esther McVey misled Parliament twice on Monday, insisting when challenged that a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) stated that the roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) must be ‘speeded up’.
It actually said that the roll-out must stop until the DWP can cope with the number of applicants.
Ms McVey appeared [video] before MPs yesterday afternoon to offer an apology-that-wasn’t for ‘inadvertently’ misleading the House. The claim that she could not just say but repeat emphatically the false claim was no credible – but she compounded her crime by lying again in her ‘apology’, making a further false claim that the report ‘flew in the face‘ of Labour MPs’ calls for a pause.
McVey was called back to the Commons today to answer an urgent question from Birkenhead MP Frank Field. McVey seemed to be aiming to get through the debate by boring everyone to sleep with her slow, monotonous, condescending speech.
But then she did something astonishing even for a Tory minister.
In the urgent debate called to discuss her ‘apology’ for misleading Parliament – in which she again misled Parliament – she completed a hat-trick:
In once again attempting to justify her false claims, McVey said that they had been her ‘interpretation’ of the fact that the NAO report had described ‘a regrettable slowing down’ of the roll-out.
But it says no such thing.
The word ‘regrettable’ does not appear once in the report. Nor does ‘unfortunately’ or ‘sadly’.
The words ‘slow’ and ‘slowly’ appear – usually in describing the DWP’s performance in putting right its errors or in helping claimants in hardship. The report does mention a couple of occasions where the roll-out was slowed down because of the DWP’s inability to cope.
But on not one occasion does it say that these slow-downs were in any way regrettable, negative or adverse – just that they happened. There is no suggestion of ‘too slow’ – and the report’s recommendation to stop until the DWP gets its act together shows that the roll-out was too fast.
The excellent Margaret Greenwood,Labour’s Shadow DWP Secretary who defeated McVey for the Wirral West seat in 2015, was not fooled by McVey’s twisting and went for the jugular. At best, she said, McVey had demonstrated unforgivable incompetence by not reading the report – and if she had read it, she had knowingly misled Parliament.
And either way, she must resign – and if she fails to do so, Theresa May must sack her or be rightly seen as colluding in her guilt.
The DWP was asked for comment. A press officer said a special contact would need to respond on the issue. No input has been received.
Comment:
Many ministers in the history of Parliament have resigned for misleading the House. But few if any can have misled Parliament on three separate occasions in just four days.
There is no place for Esther McVey on the Tory front bench – and really none in Parliament at all.
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She needs to kicked out and banned permanently from holding public office (and when it can be arranged sent to The Hague with her mate IDS to be done for crimes against hiumanity).
Send for Christopher Chope. There are pants on fire somewhere.
“There is no place for Esther McVey on the Tory front bench – and really none in Parliament at all.” I agree.
Why hasn’t she been sacked?
BBC journalist mounted a staunch defence of McVey during interview with MsGreenwood on Radio 4s World at One . It always good to see BBC acting in an impartial manner and demonstrating the best principles of investigave journalism. Incidentally noted the minister responsible for security Ben Wallace offering reassurance to England fans in Russia that the government would be doing all it can to keep them safe subsequent to the latest Wiltshire “outrage”. At a guess would say that is the attitude most likely to provoke trouble.
But the point is, they don’t need “keeping safe”.
The British State, seeing it’s ill-thought-through “novichock” bullshit just made them an object of derision among the British public, now realises to it’s horror that the World Cup is proving a massive PR victory for Putin. It has invented this latest “novichock” post-script in Amesbury in a truly pathetic and desperate attempt to put the mockers on it. They really think we’re that stupid. Their bullshit has scared off most England fans from going to the World Cup and has left us embarrassingly short of fans in the stadiums and you can bet thousands are now scrambling to get to Saturday’s Quarter-Final in Moscow. The British public will never trust them on Russia ever again and they know it.
As for McVey, her arrogance will be her deserved downfall. F**k off now, you appalling slut!
Apologies. The quarter-Final is in Samara, actually.
Perhaps McVey has a serious intellectual deficit which leaves her unable to read, understand and process information contained in reports and documents… that alone requires she step down as a minister and as also as an MP representing constituents.
This Tory regime is making parliament and parliamentary protocol a laughing stock, not just themselves. Their desperation to cling onto power is palpable and the stench of political, moral and ethical decay is overwhelming.
‘Perhaps McVey has a serious intellectual deficit’
Oh, but there’s no ”perhaps” about it…