Pat McFadden: PM Boris Johnson's use of language 'irresponsible'
Pat McFadden has urged the Prime Minister to reflect on his fiery language when he returns to the Commons this week.
The Wolverhampton South East MP hit out at Boris Johnson's "cynical" use of phrases such as "betrayal" and "surrender" during heated exchanges last week.
He said: "The country is already very divided and he has chosen to widen the division and stoke up the anger.
"Adopting language which depicts the UK as a colony and the EU as some kind of occupying power is neither true nor responsible, and the Prime Minister knows it.
"However it suits his purposes to do it and that’s the path he has chosen.”
MPs on both sides of the House came in for criticism over their behaviour, with Labour, Lib Dem and SNP MPs aggressively shouting "liar" and "shame on you" at the Prime Minister during a chaotic session on Wednesday.
Mr Johnson was rounded on after he appeared to play down the safety concerns of one MP, describing them as "humbug".
In an interview on Sunday, Mr Johnson insisting he had been a “model of restraint”.
Mr Johnson defended his use of words such as “surrender”, saying to avoid doing so was “impoverishing the language and diminishing parliamentary debate”.
He said: “I think what most people in this country would agree is that Brexit discussion has been going on for far too long and it is true that tempers on both sides have now become inflamed.”
But he said that “we haven’t got a prayer of uniting the country until we get Brexit over the line”.
Describing his Commons exchange with Labour MP Paula Sheriff, Mr Johnson said: “My use of the word ‘humbug’ was in the context of people trying to prevent me, us, from using the word ‘surrender’.”
Andrew Marr said Ms Sheriff, who claimed people quoted the Prime Minister’s words in death threats to MPs, was talking about something “very specific”.
Mr Johnson said: “In that case, that was a total misunderstanding and that was wrong.”
He added: “I can certainly say sorry for the misunderstanding, but my intention was to refuse to be crowded out from using the word ‘surrender’ to describe the Surrender Act.”
