Coffey denies manhandling Tory MPs to force opposition to Labour vote

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has denied manhandling Tory MPs to force them to oppose a Labour vote, declaring she is not at all worried about the findings of an investigation into claims of bullying in the Commons.

The Cabinet minister is among a group of senior Tories accused of pressuring colleagues to vote against the motion on fracking last week, with Labour former minister Chris Bryant alleging some Conservative MPs were physically steered into the “no” lobby.

But Ms Coffey – who was deputy prime minister and health secretary at the time – denied manhandling anyone, claiming some posts about the alleged events were “libellous”.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has asked the Serjeant at Arms, who is responsible for keeping order within the House, and other senior officials to examine the claims.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday that the parliamentary authorities are due to report back to him on Monday.

Asked whether she accepted there were ugly scenes in the Commons, and whether she was involved, Ms Coffey told GMB: “I don’t accept that at all. And frankly, you know, I’m not going to dwell on these things.

“People have posted things I believe to be libellous. What I did is to vote for the Government on that day, in terms of what had been turned into, effectively, a vote of confidence, by shenanigans by the Labour Party.”

Pressed on whether she manhandled anyone, she said: “Absolutely not.”

Ms Coffey said she was “not in the slightest” bit worried about the outcome of the investigation ordered by Sir Lindsay.

She told Times Radio: “I’m very conscious last week we saw a Labour Party trying to turn an important issue into basically a whole load of shenanigans, trying to wrestle control of business of the House in such a way that it became a vote of confidence.

“It’s that sort of thing, for me, that shows that they’re not really fit to govern this country.”