Veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner has been branded a “thug” after he called SNP MP Stewart McDonald a “piece of shit” in the House of Commons.
The so-called “beast of Bolsover” later defended his attack on the Glasgow South MP during a debate on Brexit, saying he had put McDonald “in his place”.
The row broke out during an urgent question to ministers from Jeremy Corbyn on Theresa May’s shock decision to pull the meaningful vote on her EU withdrawal deal.
McDonald had been heckling Corbyn from the SNP benches after which 86-year-old firebrand Skinner was seen to turn around and unload the expletive.
The SNP defence spokesman then took to Twitter to complain about his Labour colleague’s “parliamentary habit”.
Skinner, speaking afterwards to the Press Association, said: “He attacks Jeremy Corbyn every time he stands up and I’ve told him before he is part of the opposition and he should concentrate on attacking the real enemy. I just put them in their place.”
McDonald said Skinner was a “thug” who was “romanticised” by Labour campaigners.
He then raised Skinner’s behaviour as a point of order in the chamber, telling Speaker John Bercow that he “had no wish to raise this formally” but that Skinner had refused to apologise.
“But given he shows no sign of having any regret about it, can you just reaffirm that it’s wrong and can you reaffirm that members on all sides should be able to go about this place without being on the tail-end of that kind of abuse.”
Bercow replied that while he did not dispute that Skinner had launched the tirade, he did not hear the words: “I wasn’t there, I don’t know and I would not presume to comment on a conversation I did not hear,” he said.
He added that “moderation and good humour” were “defining features of parliamentary combat”.
“We should be able to disagree with each other agreeably, or reasonably agreeably. I do not favour anybody being abused,” he said, adding he held both MPs in the “highest regard” but could not comment on something he had not personally witnessed.
“Can we leave it there for today?,” Bercow concluded.