MPs Give "Bionic MP" Craig Mackinlay Standing Ovation As He Returns To Parliament
Craig Mackinlay has been fitted with prosthetic limbs (Alamy)
2 min read
MPs applauded Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay in an emotional moment as he returned to the House of Commons for the first time since losing his hands and feet to sepsis.
Macklinay, the MP for South Thanet, revealed on Tuesday that he fell ill in September and turned “a very strange blue” within about 30 minutes. He told the BBC he later woke from an induced coma to find his limbs had turned completely black, before they had to be amputated.
"When children come to Parliament's fantastic education centre I want them to be pulling their parents' jacket or skirts or their teacher and saying: 'I want to see the bionic MP today',” the MP said in his BBC interview.
He returned to Parliament for the first time since his illness on Wednesday, and was welcomed by MPs who gave him a rare standing ovation. While clapping is not usually allowed in the Commons, the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said this was an “exception”.
Hoyle described Mackinlay as the “man of the moment” and said: “It is an inspiration to people in this country who have suffered with sepsis, you have shown us the way forward.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also welcomed him back, adding that “no-one who watched his interview last night could have failed to have been in awe of his incredible resilience”
Labour leader Keir Starmer personally met with Macklinay and his daughter on Wednesday morning, and acknowledged his “deep sense of service” as an MP.
“This House genuinely comes together as one to pay tribute to your courage and determination in not only coming through an awful ordeal, but by being here with us today in this chamber,” he said.
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