Peter Bone Complains About 'Tory Taliban' Nickname

Peter Bone Complains About 'Tory Taliban' Nickname
Peter Bone is not happy with 'Tory Taliban' title
Peter Bone is not happy with 'Tory Taliban' title

Conservative backbencher Peter Bone has complained after a senior Labour MP mocked him for being a member of the "Tory Taliban".

The Wellingborough MP attracted the nickname due to his position on the right of the party as well as his contempt for the coalition led by David Cameron.

Bone was one of four Tory MPs to publish a list of 40 "true blue" Bills that they said reflected real Conservative values rather than the liberal "mish-mash" being pursued by the prime minister and Nick Clegg.

The right-wing wish list included bills that would ban the burka, bring back the death penalty, take Britain out of the European Union, privatise the BBC, hold a referendum on gay marriage.

On Friday Bone will introduce one of the other pieces of legislation, that would rename the August bank holiday after Margaret Thatcher.

Labour's shadow leader of the Commons, Angela Eagle, told MPs today it was good to see that the "Tory Taliban continue to fire on all cylinders".

She joked: "Their Alternative Queen's Speech is so off the wall I can't help but wonder what they will do next, a bill to disenfranchise all but the landed gentry perhaps? A repeal of the factory Acts? Or a bill to confirm the Earth is indeed flat."

However Bone, who has a son serving in the Armed Forces in Afghanistan, was not amused and asked that the "extremely offensive" remark should be withdrawn.

Raising a point of order with the deputy Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle, Bone said: "At a time when the brave men and women of our armed forces are fighting these evil people ... I find that to be a completely objectionable remark."

Bone and his fellow backbenchers, Christopher Chope, Philip Hollobone and David Nuttall, secured the right to introduce the private members bills after camping out in the parliamentary vote office for four days.

Writing for The Huffington Post UK at the time, Bone said the centre-ground of politics was "some mythical area where policies are compromised, devalued and muddled with a view to offending no one".

"In reality they are a mish-mash of inconsistent ideas that satisfy no one. This is why so many voters from the right-of-centre have moved over to voting for Ukip," he said.

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