$What caused 'manhandling' and 'jabbing at people' during Commons fracking vote?$

What caused ‘manhandling’ and ‘jabbing at people’ during Commons fracking vote?

Published

3 years ago

October 20, 2022

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It was one of those days “you think has been made up”, a former Conservative adviser told Sky News last night.

As MPs voted on a Labour motion to ban fracking, reports began to emerge of “bullying” and “manhandling” outside the no lobby.

Tory MPs “went to bed crying”, Labour MP Chris Bryant told Sky News on Thursday morning, adding that they had been “intimidated and bullied”.

Politics Hub: Latest developments from Downing Street

The business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said: “This is a government that is functioning well,” while admitting he could not claim to have “seen absolutely everything” outside the voting lobby.

“The fact is, our party’s in a total mess,” said Tory backbencher Danny Kruger. “Hundreds of colleagues are very worried.”

Conservative MPs had been instructed to vote against the motion.

The government argued it was committed to local consultations on fracking. That was despite the party’s 2019 manifesto committing to a “moratorium on fracking” unless the “science shows categorically it can be done safely”.

Thus it was understandable if Tory MPs were feeling confused.

Deputy Chief Whip Craig Whittaker had issued a “100% hard” three-line whip, meaning any Tory MP who rebelled could be thrown out of the parliamentary party, having shown, by their actions, that they did not have confidence in the government.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker told Sky News just before 6pm on Wednesday: “We’ve ended up with a confidence matter on the table. It’s extremely important that no one seeks to punish the government in these votes.”

But climate minister Graham Stuart told the Commons, minutes before the vote at 7pm, that “quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”.

Later, Number 10 said Mr Stuart had been “mistakenly” told by Downing Street to say the vote should not be treated as a confidence motion, and that Conservative MPs were “fully aware” it was subject to a three-line whip.

Following the vote, which the government won comfortably with a majority of 90, rumours began to swirl around the Palace of Westminster suggesting that both the chief whip, Wendy Morton, and Mr Whittaker had resigned.

Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News there was an “element of confusion” and he was “not entirely clear on what the situation is with the chief whip”.

Things were finally cleared up in the early hours of the morning, when Downing Street said at 1.33am: “The prime minister has full confidence in the chief and deputy chief whip.

“Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion. The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.

“However, Conservative MPs were fully aware that the vote was subject to a three-line whip.

“The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government.

“Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”

Mr Bryant tweeted a photo taken outside the no lobby showing a collection of MPs gathered together.

Two Tory “waverers” were “surrounded” by “15-20 mostly Tory MPs”, he told Sky News.

Speaking after the vote, he said: “There was a group including several cabinet ministers who were basically shouting at them and at least one member was physically pulled through the door into the voting lobby.”

Interviewed again this morning, he added: “There was a lot of shouting, there was a lot of gesticulating, pointing at people, jabbing at people – ‘squaring up to people’ is how one other MP described it to me.

“I’ve been around a very long time in parliament and I’m not naive. Of course it’s perfectly legitimate for the whips to try and persuade their members by force of reason to vote with them, but it’s not on to intimidate and bully.”

Sources close to Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey later denied she had “manhandled” MPs.

“Absolutely she was encouraging Conservative MPs into the government lobby but she didn’t manhandle anyone,” those sources said.

Transport Secretary Anne Marie-Trevelyan said she was “shocked” by the reports from the Commons, adding that it is “never acceptable” for MPs to be “manhandled” into voting.

An investigation has been launched.

Mr Rees-Mogg said the most physical contact he had seen outside the voting lobby was a woman “affectionately patting” a man on the back.

But he said he arrived with two minutes to go and could not claim he had seen “absolutely everything”.

Regarding Mr Bryant, he said the Labour MP “sometimes ought to be more judicious about the language he bandies about”.

Mr Bryant countered by saying: “I haven’t seen any videos. I’ve only seen still photos, but Jacob Rees-Mogg is in all of them.

“There will be individual Tory MPs who went to bed crying. I know, because they’ve told me so.”

Mr Kruger told Sky News: “I didn’t see any of that (alleged manhandling) and, very dismayed at those reports, I don’t really believe them.

“Obviously the atmosphere is febrile. Things are very bad for the government. No doubt there are harsh words being exchanged, but I’m afraid that is politics.”

He added that there was “certainly no manhandling” and those suggesting there was are “exaggerating, they’re twisting the knife”.

He went on: “But the fact is, our party’s in a total mess. The government is in a very bad way. We’re a divided party at the moment. Hundreds of colleagues are very worried.”

Another backbencher, David Simmonds, said: “Our colleague who allegedly was manhandled says that wasn’t the case.”

Claire Pearsall, a former Tory adviser and Tory councillor, said: “This afternoon has been one of those days that you just think has been made up.”

She was in Westminster on Tuesday and said “people are just sitting around thinking this is the end of days”.

Earlier in the day, Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary and was replaced by former transport secretary Grant Shapps.

Looking on the bright side, senior Tory backbencher Sir Roger Gale predicted that Prime Minister Liz Truss could emerge stronger following Ms Braverman’s departure.

“On balance, at the end of today I would say, in a peculiar way – and it is peculiar – Truss might come out of it stronger.

“I may be completely wrong and out of touch.”

World

Gunfire and explosions followed by unsettling silence: Sky News reports from inside Gaza City

Published

2 hours ago

October 4, 2025

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Gunfire and explosions followed by unsettling silence: Sky News reports from inside Gaza City

There is a loud boom, the noise of an explosion, followed by the rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire.

Another explosion, more distant. A sign on the wall warns people against snipers. And all around us is the rubble of destruction.

Welcome to Tel al-Hawa, once one of the most affluent suburbs of Gaza City. Now wrecked, uninhabitable and destroyed.

Like so much of Gaza – and like all the places we drove through to get here – it is a wasteland. Buildings reduced to rubble, with a layer of dust covering everything.

The only people you see are Israeli soldiers.

Throughout my day in Gaza, I didn’t see a single Gazan.

Partly that’s because we were there with the Israeli military, who controlled all our movements. Partly it’s because places like this have been so completely wrecked that everyone has fled.

I came here on Friday afternoon, along with journalists from a variety of media outlets from around the world.

There was no sign that, a few hours later, Hamas would offer a response to the Trump peace plan, nor that there would be a surge of global optimism.

Because here, amid the dust and debris, everything is bleak and threatening. Everywhere you look there is devastation. The filaments of war are everywhere.

Gaza latest: World leaders welcome Hamas response to US peace deal

The soundscape is military. There are the roars of explosions, bursts of gunfire, the buzz of drones, the clatter of troops crunching through rubble and the roar of the engines that power tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

But every now and then there is silence. No birdsong, no gentle chatter. Nothing. It is unsettling.

The proof that people ever lived here is strewn around, as if a plane has crashed. There are scraps of everyday life – a milk carton, a phone cable, a shoe. A red toy car.

And curiously, amid all this horror, there is a bouquet of red roses. They are artificial, of course, but they lie in the street, dusty and forgotten. What were they for? A party, a wedding? Or just to brighten up a home that has now been blown away.

Booby traps, snipers on roofs

We spoke to Israeli military officials, who told us they had only recently taken control of this area.

The picture they paint of Hamas fighters is that of a depleted fighting force, reduced to maybe 2,000 people, including young and inexperienced conscripts.

Their tactics are those of a guerrilla force – snipers on roofs, booby traps, improvised explosive devices.

“But it can work. We had a soldier killed very near here a couple of weeks ago. And Hamas – they are brave,” he says.

“It is hard for us to have fought for two years, but it is harder for Hamas than us. We are strong enough to finish this war, bring the hostages back, eliminate Hamas and ensure 7 October can never happen again.”

The military has occupied a building that was once either a large house or perhaps a series of apartments. Some of the rooms are simply forgotten, others are used by the IDF for offices, meals or meetings.

At the top of the building is a room with a large picture window. It looks out towards the Jordanian Hospital – the only building here, and I think the only building I saw throughout my visit that is unscathed.

The soldiers show us drone footage from inside the hospital campus, revealing a tunnel opening. Twenty metres below the ground, they say, was a Hamas workshop for designing and building missiles and rockets.

“It’s very significant,” one of the soldiers tells me, his face obscured by a balaclava. “The weapons manufactured here are being fired at our civilians. To find it here, under the compound with the hospital, shows how Hamas is using civilians to hide behind.

“We cannot attack that,” – he points at the hospital – “we don’t want to hurt the people there. It’s very significant to us as Israelis and also to the citizens of Gaza, who are being used by Hamas.”

An IDF official told me the hospital had also been used to “accommodate” between 50 and 80 Hamas fighters, and said Jordanian Hospital officials “definitely knew” about these people.

We later put these allegations to a Jordanian official source, who described the hospital’s work as “purely a humanitarian mission” that “has been providing treatment for tens of thousands of Gazans since 2009”.

“Jordan has no knowledge of the presence of tunnels under the location of the Tel al-Hawa hospital. Gaza is riddled with tunnels.

“There was no access into the hospital from any underground tunnels. Over its 16 years of operation, no fighters were present within the hospital’s premises.”

There are many stories of Israeli reserve soldiers saying they are both weary and wary, reluctant to sign up for another tour of duty.

Looking out over the hellish landscape of this shattered town, I could understand why some would think twice before rushing back.

Yet Richard Hecht did. Formerly the spokesperson for the IDF, Hecht, whose family moved from Glasgow to Israel when he was a boy, had been called at 11pm the previous evening and asked to accompany us.

We talked, with dust billowing around us at a military compound on the outskirts of Gaza City.

“I hope this war comes to an end, and it would stop in a matter of moments if Hamas returned our hostages,” he told me.

“But the IDF is very determined – we want our hostages back. We are doing everything we can because we have to fight Hamas. What alternative do we have? We need to obliterate this group.”

I suggest to him Israel’s military action now looks wildly disproportionate, especially bearing in mind they believe Hamas to now have only a couple of thousand fighters.

More than 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza, half of them women and children. And many, including a UN commission, have claimed this is genocide.

Hecht bristles. “That is an atrocious thing to say. Genocide has intent, it entails intent. It is an atrocious accusation and I cannot connect it. We are fighting Hamas. We are not fighting Palestinians.”

We have to leave. This town is regarded as an active conflict zone, and the regular chorus of gunfire and explosions testifies to that.

We clamber back into the APC, crewed by two men in their early 20s. One drives, the other stands up, using a hatch to access a machine gun based on the roof. He beckons me up to see the view.

Around us, a line of military vehicles. A digger comes into view, and then a plume of dust flies up as the APC reverses. I look down and see hundreds of spent casings around the machine gun. I point at them, and he nods slowly.

We drive away. The dust envelopes the vehicles again, and we leave Gaza City behind us.

As we head back towards the border, to the gates that divide a war zone from Israeli towns and kibbutzim, we see a huge plume of smoke rising a mile or two away.

In Gaza, the concept of peace feels almost unthinkable.

World

Dozens injured after ‘savage’ Russian drone strike on Ukrainian railway station, Zelenskyy says

Published

9 hours ago

October 4, 2025

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Dozens injured after 'savage' Russian drone strike on Ukrainian railway station, Zelenskyy says

At least 30 people have been injured in a Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian railway station, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Two trains were hit when Shostka station was targeted on Saturday, the head of Ukraine’s railways, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, said in a Facebook post.

Three children were among the passengers injured, he said, adding an employee had also been hurt.

Ukraine’s president wrote on X: “A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region.

“All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established.

“So far, we know of at least 30 victims. Preliminary reports indicate that both Ukrzaliznytsia staff and passengers were at the site of the strike.”

Regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said a train heading to Kyiv had been hit and that medics and rescuers were working on the scene.

Mr Zelenskyy and the governor posted pictures from the scene that show a passenger carriage on fire.

The head of the local district administration, Oksana Tarasiuk, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster that about 30 people
were injured by the strike. No fatalities were reported in the immediate aftermath.

Mr Pertsovskyi said the strikes were a “despicable attack aimed at stopping communication with our frontline communities”.

Moscow has stepped up its air strike campaign on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the last two months.

They have also targeted energy infrastructure with a massive bombardment on Ukraine’s gas production facilities earlier this week.

Mr Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, accused Russia of deliberately targeting the station and train, saying it was carrying out a “war against civilians”.

Overnight into Saturday, Russian drones and missiles pounded Ukraine’s power grid, a Ukrainian energy firm said.

The strike damaged energy facilities near Chernihiv, a northern city west of Shostka that lies close to the Russian border, and sparked blackouts set to affect some 50,000 households, according to regional operator Chernihivoblenergo.

On Friday, Russia carried out what officials have described as the biggest attack on Ukraine’s natural gas facilities since the war started in February 2022.

Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukraine’s air force, in what officials said was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter.

World

Hamas agrees to release all remaining Israeli hostages – but seeks further talks on rest of Trump’s peace deal

Published

23 hours ago

October 3, 2025

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Hamas agrees to release all remaining Israeli hostages - but seeks further talks on rest of Trump's peace deal

Hamas has said it agrees to release Israeli hostages, dead and alive, under Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.

The group also said it wants to engage in negotiations to discuss further details, including handing over “administration of the enclave to a Palestinian body of independent autocrats”.

However, other aspects of the 20-point plan, it said, would require further consultation among Palestinians.

The announcement came just hours after President Trump had set a new deadline of Sunday to respond to his proposals, backed by the Arab nations.

The president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the plan at the White House on Monday.

Israel agreed to the terms, which include an immediate ceasefire; the release of all hostages; Hamas disarming; a guarantee no one will be forced to leave Gaza; and a governing “peace panel” including Sir Tony Blair.

And on Friday night, a statement from Hamas confirmed “its approval to release all prisoners of the occupation – whether alive or the remains of the deceased – according to the exchange framework included in President Trump’s proposal”.

The group also said it was ready to engage in negotiations through mediators and that it appreciated “Arab, Islamc and international efforts, as well as the efforts of US President Donald Trump”.

But, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera news the group would not disarm “before the Israeli occupation ends”.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr Trump said if Hamas did not agree to the peace deal by Sunday evening “all hell” would break out.

Ramping up pressure

He had posted: “An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time. Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”

There has been no official response from the US and Israel to the partial acceptance.

Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March.

It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for two and a half months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territory.

Experts determined Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it.

An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.

Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.