It is knockabout entertainment. I remember on one occasion John Bercow, the Speaker, yelling “order, order” nine times, desperately attempting to get the House to simmer down. Each time he shouted the words the noise got louder. He became increasingly angry and bad-tempered. The MPs, as I recall, were rowdy and seemed to enjoy his increasing irritation.
That sums it up well. It is good television. There is passion and drama, most of it highly orchestrated by whips and other parliamentary managers. But as an observer, you learn next to nothing about policy from listening to PMQs.
A good PMQs performance from the party leader puts a spring in the step of backbenchers. It spreads a sense of team spirit and optimism. Such feelings are fleeting and transient but, in the moment, it is worth something. So Tory rumblings about Kemi Badenoch’s up-and-down PMQs showings do carry some weight.
Blair took the ritual so seriously that he wore his lucky pair of Church’s shoes every week. He said they cost £150. I think they now retail for about £900.
Kemi Badenoch’s performances have been mixed. And, to be fair to her, the baying mob of Tory MPs always demands instant success. Everybody knows how ruthless the Tories can be in getting rid of leaders.
This week was one of Kemi’s better ones. She knew how concerned Labour MPs were about the winter fuel payment issue, and she pointed that out in her straightforward way.
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Yet PMQs themselves are an absurdly antiquated and ineffectual way of holding the government to account. It’s more usually used as a platform for the government to get potentially embarrassing information “out there”.
This is highly convenient, as there are no follow-up questions to interrogate the PM’s answer. An actual statement of policy in the House of Commons would generally be followed by up to 90 minutes of questions on the policy. Slipping out new information during PMQs is a great way of avoiding that kind of scrutiny.
Where was Nigel Farage when the PM decided to announce the U-turn on means-testing the winter fuel payment on the floor of the House of Commons? He was on holiday.
I can’t remember any party leader being so disdainful of Parliament. But maybe Farage knows something the media class doesn’t: most people in Britain don’t care about the PMQs Punch and Judy show.
Kwasi Kwarteng is a former Conservative MP. He served as chancellor between September and October 2022 under Liz Truss
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