David Davis criticises Theresa May in Commons point of order

The home secretary Theresa May was quoted in the Sun this morning attacking those, chiefly the Lib Dems it seemed, who oppose her Communications Data Bill.

Isabel Hardman takes up the story on the Spectator Coffee House blog:

This irritated David Davis sufficiently for the Tory backbencher to raise May’s comments as a point of order in the House of Commons this afternoon. Davis, who has made his own opposition to the Bill abundantly clear from the start, told the Speaker:

"I raise this point of order with you in respect of your duty of defending the interests and rights of backbenchers and committees in this House. This morning in an interview with the Sun newspaper, the Home Secretary, who I see is on the Treasury Bench, said the following about the Communications Data Bill: 

"'Criminals, terrorists and paedophiles will want MPs to vote against this bill. Victims of crime, police and the public will want them to vote for it. It’s a question of whose side you’re on.' She also said: 'Anybody who is against this bill is putting politics before people’s lives.'

"A Joint Committee of this House and the other House is meeting at present to pass comment on this Bill. Therefore, apart from traducing a large number of Members of this House, the Home Secretary is undermining the work of that Committee. Has she asked to come to the House to explain herself, and if not, what can you do to protect us, Mr Speaker?"

We have come along way from the days when Cowley Street (as it then was) was trying to convince Lib Dem bloggers that we should all support this bill.