Not so much a U-turn as a 360-degree spin. From hug-a-hoodie to hug-a-flogger and back again. Changing policy doesn’t seem to present nearly so many problems for the prime minister as it does for Jeremy Corbyn – probably because no one really believes David Cameron has any principles he wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice for short-term personal gain.
Up till Monday night, David Cameron was standing full square alongside foreign secretary Philip Hammond in support of the rights of the Saudi government to do whatever it likes to its own citizens in exchange for sharing security titbits and any number of lucrative contracts.
Come Tuesday morning, when the details of both a Ministry of Justice contract to train the Saudi police – “you don’t want to bother with a sword, mate, just turn this Taser up to max” – and a threatened flogging for an elderly, ill UK citizen prompted an urgent question in the Commons, Dave suddenly remembered he had a conscience. The only public execution now on offer was the hanging of Hammond. Out to dry.
Not that Cameron was in the house to make the announcement. That was left to Michael Gove, who was more than happy to take the credit. Mainly because some of it was due to him anyway, as he was the only member of the cabinet who openly opposed pocketing the Saudi cash-for-executions contract. Having fallen out with Theresa May in the last parliament, he has just made an implacable enemy of the foreign secretary in this one. Who would have thought the justice secretary might turn out to be on the side of the angels?
“The government has withdrawn from the Just Solutions International contract,” Gove said, doing his best not to gloat. And failing badly, especially when he repeated the phrase Just Solutions International as if it was a codename for “Beheadings R Us”. He did, though, manage not to snigger when he added his undying admiration for the seriousness and lack of partisanship with which the Foreign Office respected human rights around the world.
When he squeezed in a brief congratulatory nod to Corbyn – the Commons is about the only place the Labour leader is guaranteed some peace and quiet from his own party – for having raised the issue in his conference speech, it was hard to know whether Gove was being generous or making Corbyn’s life awkward. Both, probably. Having one of his ideas annexed by the Tories is a mixed blessing.
With the government having caved in, much of the moral indignation on the opposition benches had to be quickly amended to congratulating the justice secretary on doing the right thing. The carping all came from the Tory benches. First from Sir Alan Duncan, who believed the government should adopt more of a die-and-let-die policy towards Saudi, but mainly from Daniel Kawczynski, who spent much of the session bobbing up and down angrily trying to catch the Speaker’s attention, while shouting out loud, “disgraceful” and “breathtaking ignorance” whenever Saudi’s record on human rights was questioned.
Given that Kawczynski is openly bisexual and could be flogged or imprisoned for his sexual preferences, his enthusiasm for all things Saudi – he is a former chairman of the all-party group for Saudi Arabia – is a matter of some curiosity. Politicians sometimes move in mysterious ways. Though party whips don’t.
Just over halfway through the session, Kawczynski was passed a note. He read it before throwing it angrily to one side. Clearly the imminent threat of 360 lashes from his own party if he didn’t stop making a nuisance of himself was more effective than any punishments the Saudis could dream up, because thereafter Kawczynski remained seated and more or less silent. Though still sulking ostentatiously, even to the point of not bothering to bow to the Speaker when he left the chamber.
The suffering, the suffering. Seldom has an MP had his human rights removed so cruelly.
