Gerald Kaufman had many great moments in the Commons, but the one which sticks out for me was an aside during PMQs on 13 February 1990. Margaret Thatcher, still adamant that sanctions on South Africa were wrong even as Nelson Mandela was due to be released, was readying to answer Labour backbencher Joan Ruddock, who had begun her question with “If the prime minister had just spent 27 years in prison…”. Kaufman, brilliantly brief, interjected a calm “…as she should”. Uproar and hilarity across the House.

The subsequent fuming early day motion, signed by the likes of Ann and Nicholas Winterton, Teresa Gorman and Roger Gale, was the icing on the cake: “That this House deplores the typically vile and offensive remark made by the Right Honourable Member for Manchester, Gorton, at Prime Minister’s Questions on Tuesday 13th February”. They didn’t mention the many Tories who were splitting their sides with laughter at Kaufman’s impeccable comic timing.

Kaufman’s speech in the Commons the following day, as shadow foreign secretary, was withering in a more extended way.

Keith Hughes

Edinburgh

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