By Gerri Peev
Last updated at 8:36 AM on 22nd December 2010
It seems it was meant as a festive joke but it backfired spectacularly.
George Osborne was plunged into a homophobia row yesterday after he called a gay shadow minister a ‘pantomime dame’.
The Chancellor’s comment had been intended as a light-hearted riposte to a dig at him by Labour’s Chris Bryant.
But Mr Bryant – whose acerbic wit has at times left colleagues smarting – failed to see the funny side and accused Mr Osborne of being nasty and homophobic.
Jibe: Openly gay Labour MP Chris Bryant was compared to a pantomime dame by the Chancellor. Right, Corrie actor Eric Potts as panto dame Sarah The Cook in the Bristol Hippodrome production of Dick Whittington
The feisty exchange happened in front of MPs during Treasury questions, the final session before parliament broke up for Christmas.
Mr Bryant likened Mr Osborne to ‘Baron Hardup’ – Cinderella’s father – because of his austerity cuts.
‘The Chancellor of the Exchequer takes a particular delight, it seems, in playing the role of Baron Hardup,’ he said.
‘But can I just say to him in the nicest, Christmassy way possible, that all his austerity talk does provide real anxiety for many of my constituents who worry about their winter fuel allowance, who worry about VAT increasing in January, who worry about major losses in construction jobs in the new year.
‘So can I please just encourage him, just sometimes, to play Prince Charming instead?’
To the surprise of MPs, Mr Osborne then shot back: ‘At least I’m not the pantomime dame.’
Commons row: Chancellor George Osborne was asked whether he would be 'Prince Charming' over proposed Government spending cuts. Right,
Mr Bryant, who is a Labour justice spokesman, looked shocked before shouting that the remark was ‘homophobic’.
A handful of Tory MPs laughed while Labour MPs called on Mr Osborne to withdraw the comment.
Later Mr Bryant, MP for the Rhondda, said: ‘I don’t think he would have said that phrase if I was not gay.
‘I think when he gets back to the office he will probably think to himself, “I should send a little note saying sorry, I didn’t mean to offend”. We all get it wrong sometimes and I think he got it wrong this time.’
On the social networking site Twitter, Mr Bryant said: ‘So George Osborne clearly doesn’t know how to be charming with his jibe at me as “pantomime dame”. Homophobic or just nasty?’
Later he told the Daily Mail that he had not received any apology from the Chancellor, adding: ‘I will survive.’
Labour treasury spokesman Kerry McCarthy, who was on her party’s front bench during the exchange, tweeted that it was a ‘nasty little homophobic jibe from Osborne’.
Sources close to Mr Osborne insisted it had been a little ‘Christmas joke’, adding that he would not be apologising.
David Cameron then got dragged into the row when he was asked at a Number 10 press conference whether it was acceptable for the Chancellor to call a gay MP a ‘pantomime dame’.
The Prime Minister said he had not seen the exchange, but said it sounded like part of the ‘rough and tumble’ of parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg put up a more robust defence. He said: ‘Surely it wasn’t intended as a homophobic remark – of course not.’
Mr Clegg, a one-time aspiring actor, added: ‘I’ve been in a pantomime myself.’
A Commons source added: ‘George thinks he is being funny but sometimes his off-the-cuff responses get the better of him.
‘If he is not careful, he will be cast as the villain in this pantomime, or at the very least, the back end of the horse.’
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