Geraint Davies confirms confrontational row with Commons safety guard
Geraint’s dangerous week continues
The final week will definitely be chalked down as one of many worst of Geraint Davies’ profession. The long-serving MP was suspended by the Labour Party after quite a few allegations of sexual harassment in opposition to younger Labour staffers, Labour MPs and a member of Commons workers.
Formal complaints have now been made to the Labour Party about his behaviour, so it doesn’t seem like he’ll be getting the whip again any time quickly.
So far, solely Politico has been capable of get a remark out of him. Now Beachcomber can reveal he’s denied squaring as much as Commons safety in a pre-PMQs showdown.
A Commons supply bought in contact to say they not too long ago noticed Mr Davies “square up” to a parliamentary safety officer forward of PMQs, making an attempt to “barge his way through to the chamber”.
He was, so the anecdote goes, stopped by safety earlier than pulling the ‘do you know who I am’ routine.
Geraint’s recollection of the occasion is considerably totally different. He claims he entered central foyer simply after the Speakers procession had handed by way of.
“A security guard, at the back of the crowd that had watched the procession, turned round and pushed me in the chest and I said “please don’t push me” and he said “you don’t have a pass” and I showed him my parliamentary pass then walked past to go to PMQs.
“I decided not to report him as he was trying to do his job although I did think him pushing me was unnecessary and excessive.”
How gracious not to report the guard for doing his job…
Good use for that black-belt
It appears Matt Hancock has set a precedent for what to do when you depart Government as a secretary of state: get on reality TV.
Beachcomber has it on good authority that following his resignation as Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab has already been approached by Channel 4 who have asked him to appear as a contestant on the next series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Matt Hancock’s appearance on the show is yet to be broadcast but by all accounts Beachcomber hears he performs rather well.
No doubt Channel 4 is drawn to Mr Raab’s bad boy image and notorious black-belt in karate.
Thankfully it will be the SAS instructors doing the shouting…
No Payne, no gain
Former FT hack Seb Payne is on the receiving end of substantial Twitter abuse at the moment, thanks to the revelation he’s standing to be a Tory MP at the next election.
Seb’s currently running the centre-right think tank Onward, and was always very fair in his pieces about Boris Johnson’s government, so the move really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Beachcomber thinks the social media pile-on is particularly unfair given two other journalists are also standing as candidates in forthcoming elections – the only difference being they’ve plumped for Labour.
Torcuil Crichton, the Daily Record’s Westminster Editor, is standing for Labour in Na h-Eileanan an Iar; John Hess, the BBC’s Political Editor for the East Midlands for a few years is standing to turn out to be the Labour candidate for East Midlands Mayor.
Thankfully for Seb, Twitter has no say in who is chosen as Conservative candidates…
MPs’ recess travels
It’s been a quiet week within the Red Lion with MPs and friends away on their holidays this week.
Quiet, that’s, aside from the vacationers from assorted nations who descend upon Westminster on tour buses for his or her selfies.
But Beachcomber has not been in need of MPs sending their vacation snaps from varied components of the world.
One that struck the curiosity greater than most was from one among Parliament’s resident Anglo Italians Marco Longhi, the eminently wise MP for Dudley North.
He informed Beachcomber that he was on a pilgrimage to the Eternal City – Rome.
The image Longhi Whatsapped over was of the Archangel Michael, not as one could anticipate from the Vatican City the place most pilgrimages find yourself however the Castel Sant’Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel).
Few keep in mind that initially this was constructed as a tomb for Emperor Hadrian who was famed for constructing that wall throughout the north of England to maintain the blue-painted Picts out from what’s now Scotland.
Given Mr Longhi’s well-known antipathy to the SNP and all issues Scottish Nationalist evidently his pilgrimage was certainly to a person who had a dramatic resolution to maintain the lefty rabble from the north out.