Political column - March 29

Happy Easter.

She was asked to pass on her Easter wishes to the town by Telford's Conservative MP Lucy Allan, and Theresa May was happy to oblige.

"I'm very happy to wish everybody in Telford, and around the country, a Happy Easter," said Mrs May, obligingly.

That must have made Lucy's day, which was already something special.

"Today is the most exciting day that I have ever got to my feet in this House," she said as she rose to put her question at the last Prime Minister's Questions before Parliament's Easter recess.

And the reason for her excitement?

"That is because today this Government has made an announcement which will improve the lives of every single one of my constituents in Telford."

How?

"Today the Government has announced a £312 million investment in new hospital services in our area. So will my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister join me in welcoming this fantastic news and the benefits it will bring to Telford?"

As the leader of the Government, Mrs May was naturally pleased to do so.

"This is another example of the way all we ever hear from the Labour Party is about the NHS being done down in funding terms. What we see on the ground is more money going to the NHS improving services and serving constituents," said the PM.

Today, Thursday, is going to be a special day in the life of one of Britain's, and Shropshire's, oldest companies, GKN, as it is the deadline for the shareholders to make up their minds on turnover specialist Melrose's controversial hostile takeover bid.

Jack Dromey (Labour): "Disturbing evidence has come to light of a hedge fund scam to buy shares in GKN while avoiding paying tax on shares that will determine the future of GKN. Will she agree to condemn this outrageous practice and to investigate it as a matter of urgency?"

Mrs May said the takeover bid was primarily a commercial issue. On the other point, if he had evidence of illegal activity that had taken place, that should be reported to the proper authorities.

A number of MPs called for a rerun of the EU referendum on the grounds that all those people who voted Leave had had their data stolen and it was then used to brainwash them to vote in the way they did.

Actually none of them said anything like that, but you get the impression that that is where they are "coming from" and the end result - a ruling that the referendum was invalid - is something that they would like to see.

Mrs May's response suggests the campaign won't get very far if she has anything to do with it.

"If there are those who are trying to suggest that the Government should be rejecting the result of the referendum as a result of these sort of claims, I say to them very clearly..." she began, before an interruption, ending simply: "The referendum was held, the vote was taken, the people gave their view and we will be delivering on it."

"The Cambridge Analytica revelations suggest there is something rotten in the state of our democracy," ventured the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

Tory MPs groaned loudly.

Current electoral law, she went on, was inadequate at dealing with the combination of big money and big data. She called for cross party talks to tighten things up.

Jeremy Corbyn has often used his questions to drive home his theme of there being a crisis in the NHS, and his angle of attack this time round was devoted to the failings of mental health services due to funding cuts and cuts in staff.

His serious points were made with references to statistics and personal cases. In comparison with recent weeks the exchanges were relatively civil, but Mrs May always has her party political parting shot prepared, which you know is on its way when she starts talking about the Tories taking a balanced approach to the economy and keeping debts down.

"Labour's approach would mean increased debt, it would less money for mental health services, and higher taxes for working people and ordinary working people would pay the price of Labour."

And she didn't even wish Jeremy a Happy Easter.