Andrea Leadsom has likened the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal to a parrot, saying it is the “only one in the aviary” and therefore worth “serious consideration”.
The Commons leader said Theresa May’s plan was the “only parrot that is available to us” after an MP compared it to a fictional, dead parrot.
Pete Wishart, the SNP’s Commons leader, referencing the Monty Python sketch during business questions, said: “It’s already a deceased deal, like the great Norwegian Blue parrot, this is a deal that won’t even be pining for the Norwegian fjords.
“It won’t even be pining for a Norwegian+ deal – this deal, like that great comic parrot of yore, has just about squawked its last and is about to go and meet its maker.”
Andrea Leadsom likens Theresa May’s Brexit deal to a parrot, saying it is the “only one in the aviary” and therefore worth “serious consideration” – after the SNP’s Pete Wishart compares the deal to Monty Python’s Norwegian Blue parrot pic.twitter.com/yBzeOudRlo
— Harriet Line (@HarriLine) November 29, 2018
Mrs Leadsom replied: “(Mr Wishart) alludes to that parrot, and that parrot had snuffed it, he will remember.
“This parrot is the only one in the aviary and I think that it is therefore worth serious consideration.”
She went on to urge parliamentarians to “get behind” the deal, adding: “I think it is superb news that the United Kingdom, businesses and people, will be well served by this deal.
“It is the only parrot that is available to us and I think that parliamentarians need to get behind it.”
Labour MP Clive Efford (Eltham) later complained that backbench MPs were not being given enough time to debate the Government’s meaningful vote motion.
He said each MP would have “roughly four minutes” to speak if all wanted to contribute.
Mr Efford added: “Backbenchers are going to be very tight in what they’re going to be able to say in that debate.”
Mrs Leadsom responded, saying the Government was “determined to provide plenty of time for debate”.
