Angela Smith, Labour MP for Sheffield Hillsborough has announced she is to resign as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Yvette Cooper over the scrapping of the 10p income tax starter rate. At last, a Labour MP who is standing by her principles!
Good for you Angela!
But hold on just a minute. Weren't you the same Angela Smith MP who voted for the budget resolutions last month that introduced the actual change? Oh dear, I do believe you are.
But perhaps that was all a big mistake, and she voted for the loss of the 10p rate without noticing it! An easy mistake for a Labour MP to make!
Perhaps she was just too busy as the sidekick of a high flying minister. Perhaps she was engrossed in the policies put forward by that minister to pay much attention to Treasury issues. So, let's see, PPS to Yvette Cooper, Chief Secretary to the ... errr, well the Treasury actually.
So, she was part of the ministerial team that implemented this change and then she voted for it. Now she's resigned from her unpaid position as PPS because she is opposing the tax increase she herself has just voted for.
In a sense you have to credit Labour MPs with their ability to turn sanctimonious hypocrisy into an art form.
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