As a fearless backbencher, Tory MP Sir Patrick Cormack established a reputation for telling the Commons exactly what he thought. Perhaps this is why he never achieved high office.
It was thought that his bellowing tones might be muted now that he has joined the sleepy old red benches in the Upper House but not so. Only the other day, when he took part in a debate, he was wearing a “club tie” for Tory MPs who rebelled on House of Lords reform and Cormack wants it known that he agrees with them.
The colours looked a bit like an MCC tie but muddier. Not so much an egg and bacon as “egg and sausage”, one observer tells me. Or maybe it really was an MCC tie adorned with layers of egg and bacon from the Commons canteen? “I’m proud to wear the tie made by the 91 stout Tory rebels who frustrated that Bill by saying, ‘You can’t get this through because we will not give you the time to do so,” boomed Cormack. Lord Cormack is clearly just as rebellious as Sir Patrick used to be.
