Labour MP and shadow health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan has hit back at health secretary Matt Hancock after he told her to watch her “tone” during a debate in the House of Commons.
“I will not ‘watch my tone’ when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily. Families are being torn apart,” she wrote on twitter.
I will not ‘watch my tone’ when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily. Families are being torn apart. https://t.co/pfMsBQpHv0
— Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) May 5, 2020
“I will respectfully challenge the Government – I want our country to succeed,” she wrote on the social media platform by sharing a video clip of the debate.
I will respectfully challenge the Government – I want our country to succeed.
However, I will not ‘watch my tone’ when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily.
A clip of my Q to the Health Sec today. pic.twitter.com/5jjQRXyIm3
— Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) May 5, 2020
The Labour MP for Tooting, Dr Rosena continues to work as an A&E doctor alongside her duties as an MP, asked the health secretary about the government’s failure to test frontline workers for COVID-19.
While answering an urgent question in the house, Hancock denied Dr Allin-Khan’s claim that the lack of testing in the UK was costing lives and told her to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state’s book “in terms of tone”.
Following the incident, people on social media accused Hancock of acting in a “condescending” way. Many wanted him to apologise for the remark.
Labour MP Diane Abbott said on twitter: “Absolutely nothing wrong with your tone.
“It reflects and reverberates with the reality of what yourself and other NHS workers are experiencing. Hancock very unwise to be so dismissive.”
Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman described the incident as ‘creepy’. “Worse that he recommends she adopts the tone of another man. I suggest Matt Hancock changes his.”
Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said that Hancock ‘should apologise’ as Dr Rosena is serving A&E doctor.
