MINERS’ MP Dennis Skinner failed to make his traditional Queen’s Speech day quip yesterday because he was too busy wrestling Scottish Nationalists for his prized Commons seat.

The legendary “Beast of Bolsover” normally occupies the “awkward squad” bench at the front corner of the opposition section, but Parliament’s buoyant SNP group has attempted to claim it as its own.

Mr Skinner, who has served in the Commons since 1970, is famous for cracking jokes when royal official Black Rod arrives to summon MPs to receive the Queen in the House of Lords.

But yesterday he told the Daily Mirror: “I’ve got bigger fish to fry than uttering something.

“I’ve been fighting some other battles, haven’t I? I was fighting the Scot Nats single-handed for a while.”