Tory MP: Send Mc and Mac MPs to ‘outer darkness’

Philip Hollobone. There are 25 members with Mc or Mac surnames, including seven SNP MPs. Picture: Contributed

Philip Hollobone’s remarks were targeted at 25 members of Parliament - many in the new block of SNP of 56 MPs elected in May - after he raised concerns over delays in the voting lobbies.

He told the Commons his suggestion was merely aimed at alleviating long queues in the voting lobbies of the House of Commons.

Addressing Commons Leader Chris Grayling during the weekly business statement, the Kettering MP said: “Do you share my concern that the business of the House is being unnecessarily delayed by divisions taking an unnecessarily long time?

“It would seem to me the primary cause of this is the unequal length of the alphabetical queues in the voting lobbies.

“A quick analysis shows there are 199 members in the N-Z queue and 236 in the G-M queue. Given you are a G and the chief whip (Mark Harper) is an H, will you ensure that by the time we come back in September, these queue lengths have been equalised.

“The quickest and easiest way to do this would be to consign the 25 members of this House whose surname begins with Mc to the outer darkness of the N-Z queue.”

The remarks prompted Speaker John Bercow to quip: “You really are a most legendary anorak.”

Mr Grayling replied: “I will simply say I very much value my Scottish colleagues in this Union Parliament and I would not wish to consign them to any outer darkness - but I have every sympathy with the point you make, it is something I do intend to ask officials to look at when the (House of Commons) commission starts meeting.

“There is no doubt as a G who stands in the queue whilst the other queues disappear, I have a lot of sympathy with what you say.”