Cocaine rumours ire UK parly
2005-12-09 07:29
London - A leftwing firebrand in Prime Minister's Tony Blair governing Labour Party was thrown out of parliament on Thursday for suggesting that a prominent opposition Conservative lawmaker took cocaine.
Dennis Skinner made the slur against Conservative finance spokesperson George Osborne during a rant in the House of Commons against the party's economic record in government in the 1980s.
"The only thing that was growing then were the lines of coke in front of boy George and the rest of the Tories," he quipped, referring to 34-year-old Osborne's youth.
The remark angered Speaker Michael Martin, prompting the dour Scotsman to demand Skinner withdraw the remark.
But none was forthcoming from the straight-talking 73-year-old, whose nickname "The Beast of Bolsover" refers to his acid tongue and central England constituency.
'Public knowledge'
"That was in the News of the World and you know it," he said, referring to a salacious article that recently appeared about Osborne, the heir to a wallpaper fortune, in a popular Sunday tabloid that he rebutted fiercely.
"No, I'm not withdrawing it ... It's true."
Martin, responsible for keeping order in the chamber and relative civility between opposition members, then ordered the MP to leave.
He officially "named" him - an archaic form of in-house discipline for those who refuse to obey parliamentary rules and procedure. It was not immediately clear, however, whether Skinner would be sanctioned with a temporary ban from Westminster.
David Cameron, declared the new Conservative leader just two days ago, and who is close to Osbourne, was repeatedly asked during his campaign whether he had taken cocaine. He refused to answer and issue eventually faded.