Five times Penny Mordaunt mocked the SNP during business questions

Penny Mordaunt has made mocking the SNP a feature of business questions, with the Commons leader seemingly having a weekly speech prepared.

Whatever the question, the senior minister appears to have a topical insult lined up, linked to the news or stories of the day, all of which seem to go viral.

Here are five examples of the Portsmouth North MP making digs at Humza Yousaf’s party.

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt frequently mocks the SNP during business questions.

The Hate Crime Bill

On March 21, Ms Mordaunt referenced the Hate Crime bill being brought by the SNP, and used it to mock her SNP counterpart, Deidre Brock.

She said: "I have noticed a consistent hostility and unpleasantness in her questions towards me and this has been going on for some time, weeks in fact.

"I'm getting the impression she does not like me, perhaps even hates me, and her followers on social media certainly do, and there are some patronising undertones in what she says and I believe she is saying that I'm deficient in my abilities to answer her questions, perhaps because I am a woman.

"I feel very intimidated, upset and deeply, deeply hurt so as well as noting her questions, I have been sat on the front bench filling in a hate-related report form, which my officials have so kindly placed in my folder, I'm going to have one ready for every single SNP colleague that gets to their feet.

"If I did send it to the Scottish police they would be obliged to investigate increasing the growing number of reasons why they are struggling to attend burglaries.

"I sincerely hope that the SNP's new hate crime laws does not have a chilling effect on our exchanges."

The 12 days of misery

Perhaps the most famous of her speeches, the rumoured Tory leadership candidate delivered a dig inspired by the “12 days of Christmas”.

Referencing a series of scandals, she said: “I think we should have a festive round-up Mr Speaker on SNP morality.

She referenced 12 hours of police questioning, 11 grand roaming charges, 10 years without school inspections, nine sham embassies – and so it went on.

The Willy Wonka experience

This retort referenced the viral Glasgow Willy Wonka experience, which has been condemned by visitors as a waste of money, and false advertising.

She was speaking in response to SNP business spokesman Richard Thomson raising concerns over £15,000 of taxpayers’ cash being used to cover damages paid to an academic that UK science secretary Michelle Donelan falsely accused of supporting Hamas.Ms Mordaunt said: “I think it is rather cheeky of (Thomson) to seek to lecture us about use of public funds – I refer him to what I said about the secretary of state for science earlier on – the SNP are legendary in this respect.

“I had wrongly assumed actually that the appalling Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow had been laid on by the SNP, given its high cost, poor return, and the fact that the police were called.

“But however the presence of a bouncy castle put patent to that theory, given that bouncy castles have been banned by SNP local authorities on health and safety grounds.”

A bunch of rotters

Ms Mordaunt also joked about the Tories being “a bunch of rotters” after Ms Brock accused her of being anti-Scottish, and the Tories of being “untroubled by poverty”.

The Commons Leader replied: “Well, what a bunch of rotters we are and our anti-Scottish articles.

“It appears that the honourable lady is planning to follow in the footsteps of many a great antipodean election guru by this brilliant new strategy to equate the criticisms of the SNP’s performance with criticism of Scotland itself.

“The latter is a landmass of approximately 30,000 square miles, populated by brilliant, creative, stoic people. The former is a ramshackle, separatist movement, full of people who have turned maladministration into an art form.

“There is just one tiny flaw in this new political tactic from the SNP – if we Conservatives dislike Scotland so much, for some reason the honourable lady never gets round to explaining – why on Earth would we strive so hard to keep it part of the union of the United Kingdom?”

Victoria diseases and rats

The comment that most rankled the SNP was a response to questions about a recent visit to Scotland.

Ms Mordaunt said: “She invites me to tell this House what I’ve learned in my very pleasant trips to Scotland over the summer.

“I did learn that Scotland has slower economic growth than England.

“I was shocked to learn that Victorian diseases have actually returned to certain cities in Scotland such as rickets.

“That Glasgow’s rat problem is now so bad, it is precluding binmen actually accessing certain streets because it’s too dangerous for them.

“I discovered that the bill to Scottish taxpayers of the smelting business debacle stands at £32 million.

“I discovered that £33 million that was ringfenced for Scottish farmers has gone AWOL.

“I look forward to next week what those excuses might be, the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, the Highland Clearances, the 100 Years War.

“The grotesque chaos and appalling public services her constituents are suffering from and the rest of the Scottish people are entirely down to the SNP alone".