The exchange between Alex Salmond and Anna Soubry provides a timely opportunity to take a look back on some of the other famous parliamentary confrontations and put-downs. From the controversial to the simply hilarious, here are a few.
1. We head back to former Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s time Parliament in 1931 when he gave this remark about Sir John Simon. “The right honorable and learned gentleman has twice crossed the floor of the house, each time leaving behind a trail of slime.”
2. Next on our countdown is an exchange between Winston Churchill and Nancy Astor. This famous clash’s authenticity is a cause of contention, but it’s brilliant nonetheless.
Lady Astor: “If I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee.”
Reply: “If I were married to you, I’d drink it.”
(Was it actually Churchill? It is nice to believe it was.)
3. Here Margaret Thatcher goes to town on then deputy Labour leader Denis Healey in 1983. In a debate she calls him “Frightened!” at the prospect of an election, famously looked back on as an occasion when she let her childhood Lincolnshire dialect slip through.
4. This time a marvellous put down directed towards Mrs Thatcher from Labour MP Tony Banks. Banks daringly describes Thatcher as having all the sensitivity of a “sex starved boa constrictor”. Ouch.
5. During William Hague’s not so successful time as Tory Leader he was on the receiving end of one of Tony Blair’s performances at question time. In reference to the famous game show Blair replied to Hague:
“You are the weakest link, goodbye.”
6. Labour back-bencher Tom Watson took a brave punt at then Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2010, in which he rebuked him as a “miserable pipsqueak of a man.” “Pipsqueak” however, was deemed ‘unparliamentary’.
7. In 2007, Lib-Dem MP Vince Cable characterised Prime Minister Gordon Brown as having transitioned from “Stalin to Mr Bean” which caused much amusement on the opposition benches.
8. Finally, who could forget in 2011 when Prime Minister David Cameron channelled Michael Winner and told an excited Angela Eagle MP: “Calm down, dear.” He was later forced to apologise amid much criticism.