Environment Secretary Therese Coffey (Jacob King/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has denied accusations that she manhandled Tory MPs to stop them from voting to reinstate a ban on fracking.
Chaos erupted in the Commons last week as the Government U-turned on a threat to strip the whip from Conservative MPs if they backed a fracking ban.
A number of allegations of bullying were levelled at senior Cabinet figures including Ms Coffey and the whips over “physically manhandling” wavering MPs through the division lobbies.
Deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker had issued a “100 per cent hard” three-line whip, meaning any Tory MP who rebelled could be thrown out of the parliamentary party.
But climate minister Graham Stuart caused confusion by telling the Commons minutes before the vote that “quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”.
Ms Coffey – who was deputy prime minister and health secretary at the time – denied manhandling anyone and claimed such allegations were “libellous”.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has asked the Serjeant at Arms, who is responsible for keeping order within the House, and other senior officials to examine the claims.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday that the parliamentary authorities are due to report back to him on Monday.
Asked whether she accepted there were ugly scenes in the Commons, Ms Coffey told GMB: “I don’t accept that at all. And frankly, you know, I’m not going to dwell on these things.
“People have posted things I believe to be libellous. What I did is to vote for the Government on that day, in terms of what had been turned into, effectively, a vote of confidence, by shenanigans by the Labour Party.”
Pressed on whether she manhandled anyone, she said: “Absolutely not.”
Ms Coffey said she was “not in the slightest” bit worried about the outcome of the investigation ordered by Sir Lindsay.
She told Times Radio: “I’m very conscious last week we saw a Labour Party trying to turn an important issue into basically a whole load of shenanigans, trying to wrestle control of business of the House in such a way that it became a vote of confidence.
“It’s that sort of thing, for me, that shows that they’re not really fit to govern this country.”
