Chris Hinchliff says language used is indicative of ‘private schoolboy drinking club’ culture within government
Chris Hinchliff was surprised when he was called into the whip’s office at short notice to be told he was no longer a Labour MP because of his campaign to enshrine chalk stream protections in law.
Hinchliff, 31, who last summer became the new MP for North East Hertfordshire, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour party, along with three other MPs, because of a small rebellion he organised over the planning and infrastructure bill.
He has a couple of rare chalk streams in his constituency that are being polluted with sewage, sucked dry and killed. Hinchliff submitted amendments to the bill that would stop new developments from being able to further abuse these habitats. Fifteen of his colleagues voted for these amendments.
A source on Keir Starmer’s team said the MPs had been suspended for “persistent knobheadery”. Hinchliff looks visibly hurt by the accusation, saying: “I’ll leave that for others to assess … I suppose ever so slightly more seriously about that, it doesn’t surprise me that people use that language. That is the sort of language we persistently see from a certain set of people involved in politics for whom it’s all a personality thing, it’s all a game.”
