Cameron dismisses Labour MP with Winner slogan

Prime minister sparks anger after using Michael Winner advertising slogan to shadow chief secretary at PMQs Labour has asked David Cameron to apologise after he told the shadow Treasury chief secretary, Angela Eagle, to “calm down, dear” at prime minister’s questions. Cameron made his remarks as he faced pressure over hospital waiting times. The prime minister repeated “calm down” several times until the Speaker, John Bercow, had to interrupt proceedings to quieten things down. His remarks caused uproar on the Labour front bench, which believes Cameron betrays an arrogance when under pressure. Labour’s official spokesman branded his remarks as “sexist, insulting and patronising”. The party called on Cameron to apologise, saying his comments had been, at the least, not prime ministerial and were arrogant. A No 10 spokesman said Cameron’s remarks had been intended to be light-hearted and were a reference to a Michael Winner advertisement, selling insurance. Eagle heckled as Cameron attempted to read a quote from the former Labour MP Howard Stoate backing the government’s NHS reforms. He claimed Stoate had been defeated at the last election by a Conservative candidate when – as Eagle was pointing out – Stoate had in fact stood down. Cameron told the Wallasey MP: “Calm down, dear, calm down. Calm down and listen to the doctor.” As the Labour benches erupted, the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, angrily pointed to Eagle and his wife, Yvette Cooper, apparently demanding to know whom the PM had been referring to, while the party leader, Ed Miliband, appeared to call for an apology. But Cameron told them: “I said calm down, calm down dear. I’ll say it to you if you like … I’m not going to apologise. You do need to calm down.” Speaker John Bercow had to step in to quieten the Labour benches, telling MPs: “There’s far too much noise in this chamber, which makes a very bad impression on the public as a whole.” But Labour MP John Woodcock revived the row later, telling MPs that the prime minister was “losing his rag because he is losing the argument”. Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat Treasury chief secretary half apologised on behalf of the prime minister, saying: “Obviously if something has caused offence, obviously that was not right. I hope it has not caused offence because it was a joke. He was clearly making a joke from where I was sitting. “I thought he was clearly referring to Ed [Balls] because Ed is someone who likes to chunter from the frontbench. He is the shadow chunterer” Balls said if he had made such a remark at home his wife, Cooper, the shadow home secretary, would have clocked him one. David Cameron PMQs House of Commons Labour Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.