Dennis Skinner Missed PMQs Because Policeman Locked Him Up For Making Fun Of Sun Crossword

Dennis Skinner Missed PMQs Because He Was In A Police Cell
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Dennis Skinner has revealed why he missed one session of prime minister's questions - he was in a police cell for making fun of The Sun.

Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday evening, the veteran leftwing MP recalled the TV-am strike in 1987 which resulted in him being arrested.

"I was on that picket line, and I do not remember there being any fuss and bother about the fact that a policeman came up and decided that he was going to arrest me," Skinner said. "He put me inside—I think it was somewhere near Islington, not far from the TV-am picket line.

"After three hours, just as I was thinking, 'I’m going to miss Prime Minister’s Question Time', a man with all these pips on his shoulder came in and said, 'Is there anything I can do for you, sir?' I said, 'Yes, I’m trying to get out so that I can get to Prime Minister’s Question Time. I’m also struggling with 13 across in The Guardian crossword, but as a reader of The Sun, you probably don’t understand what I’m talking about'."

Skinner added: "So he kept me in another two hours, and I did miss Prime Minister’s Question Time."

MPs had been debating whether or not it should be made public in the Commons should they ever be arrested. Skinner, who noted he had been nearly every picket line that has ever existed, said he did not know "what all the fuss is about".

Skinner is perhaps most famous for heckling during the State Opening of Parliament, here are three of the best: