‘Unprecedented’: Parliament expert condemns treatment of staff in mic row

Ex­press­ing shock at what un­fold­ed dur­ing Fri­day evening’s Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee, a par­lia­men­tary ex­pert with vast ex­pe­ri­ence in par­lia­men­tary ad­min­is­tra­tion de­scribed the in­ci­dent as un­prece­dent­ed and mount­ed a vig­or­ous de­fence of par­lia­men­tary staff, ar­gu­ing that the con­tro­ver­sy ap­peared to stem from a mis­un­der­stand­ing of how the cham­ber’s au­dio sys­tem func­tions.