A Tory MP has been rinsed on Twitter after saying he would rather watch the Ashes than vote on whether Boris Johnson should lose his parliamentary pass for lying about partygate.
Brendan Clarke-Smith, a strong supporter of the former prime minister, had previously said he would vote against the privileges committee’s recommendations.
But he tweeted a statement this afternoon setting out why he did not want to be part of the “silly games” of Johnson’s opponents.
Alongside a picture of himself sitting on a train, he said: “I am 100% against today’s appalling recommendations. I fully intended to vote against, but I will be standing with my colleagues and not giving others the satisfaction of taking part in their silly games with a division. At least the cricket is worth watching today.”
Right-wing journalist Sophie Corcoran replied: “Isn’t that the cowards way out though? The only way to properly show that the recommendations and the processes are nonsense is to vote against - anything else is just saying you agree. How can you go over national media then back out at the last minute?”
Clarke-Smith, the MP for Bassetlaw, said: “Not really no. As it is clearly being whipped on one side and not on another, with many away today it will make a mockery of the numbers, which is all some of the coverage will be focused on afterwards. My position is very clear and I’d urge others to publicly declare theirs.”
Others said the MP should be doing his job in parliament rather than watching cricket.
Keith Hathaway said: “The cricket is worth watching when you pick up a taxpayers salary, and not vote as asked to do so! Shame on you.”
And Lib Dem councillor Alex Sandiford added: “Cricket over casework and constituents needs? You were not elected to watch sport.”
And Eric Morrish said: “Sorry to any of Brendan’s constituents who want his help with anything, but the cricket’s on.”
Meanwhile, other Twitter users simply took the opportunity to poke fun at him.