PERKINS' WIFE GAFFE

During yesterday's Commons debate there were a couple of embarrassing gaffes from Labour MPs.  Dawn Butler popped up with her question to the Prime Minister, but fell flat on her face before she'd even got to ask it, addressing the Speaker as 'Mr Deputy Speaker'.  Someone hastily corrected her, which she laughed off with a flippant apology.  Sir Lindsay Hoyle's reaction could not be seen, but one can imagine he was not amused.  Butler posted the video to her social media accounts, but edited out the gaffe.  The full embarrassing version can be seen here.

Even more humiliating was the contribution of Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins.  The Labour frontbencher wanted to ask about the issue of pub closures, but was met with laughter from both sides of the house as he inadvertently referred to his own infidelity: "The Prime Minister will be as aware as anyone, people don't generally go to the pub to meet their own wife".  While it may have been intended as a dig at the PM's track record in love, Perkins himself reportedly tried to gag his mistress last year.  

The MP was knocked off guard by the giggles and he struggled to maintain his composure as he stuttered and stammered his way to the conclusion of his question.  Watch below.

PERKINS' SPITTING IMAGE GAFFE

Toby Perkins

Labour frontbencher Toby Perkins has lashed out at Darren Grimes over a tweet in which the Brexit activist criticised the BBC.  Grimes's tweet referred to the upcoming Spitting Image reboot and the BBC's publicity coverage ahead of its broadcast.  Perkins confidently lashed Grimes stating that the programme was commissioned by ITV - not the BBC - and accused him of being 'factually incorrect', spreading 'misinformation' and of killing truth itself.  Hilariously, the Chesterfield MP has actually got it all wrong himself.

Historically, Spitting Image has been an ITV production, but if Perkins had only checked beforehand he would have discovered that this has now changed.  The upcoming Spitting Image show has been produced for the BritBox subscription service as a joint venture by both ITV and the BBC.  There is in fact nothing ''factually incorrect' about Grimes's tweet.

Given Perkins' concern over the numbers involved in Grimes's tweet, perhaps we can surmise that the Remainer is a little aggrieved that while he himself has 25,000 followers on Twitter, the young Leave activist has a whopping 124,000 followers.  Clearly that hurts and his woeful attempt at smearing Grimes will hurt more once it dawns on that he's got his Spitting Image 'facts' completely wrong.

THE LABOUR SIX

As if Corbyn hadn't suffered enough already, there were raised eyebrows on Friday when it emerged that six Labour MPs had voted in favour of Boris Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement.  This came despite an insidious purge of pro-Leave MPs and candidates over the course of the last year.  All but one MP who backed Leave in 2016 now remains in the Parliamentary Labour Party (Graham Stringer).  The others were purged by way of various means - either suspended (Kelvin Hopkins), deselected (Roger Godsiff) or driven out (Frank Field, Kate Hoey).  Those who backed Remain initially, but had since backed Leave faced similar pressures.  Caroline Flint survived the purge, but she did not survive the election.

So, who were the rebels that defied the Labour whips on Friday?

Sarah Champion (Rotherham - 68% Leave)
Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire - 55% Leave)
Jon Cruddas (Dagenham & Rainham - 70% Leave)
Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields - 62% Leave)
Grahame Morris (Easington - 66% Leave)
Toby Perkins (Chesterfield - 59% Leave)

Labour's lone 2016 Brexiteer did not vote on the bill, but he has not backed the Withdrawal Agreement previously either.  Graham Stringer was one of 32 Labour MPs who did not register a vote, although this could be due to absence rather than abstention.  Ten Conservatives also failed to vote, but again it's unclear whether they were present - did some MPs slope off early for Christmas?