Labour whips have made a bold attempt to cancel next week’s Prime Minister’s Questions session following a heated exchange between Keir Starmer and the Speaker of the House of Commons.
According to parliamentary insiders, Labour sought to conclude the Commons session early next week. This move was reportedly aimed at sparing Sir Keir from another potentially damaging confrontation with Kemi Badenoch.
The Prime Minister was visibly upset on Wednesday after Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, instructed him to directly address Kemi Badenoch’s questions instead of evading them.
While outlining the parliamentary agenda for the coming week, Commons Leader Sir Alan Campbell mentioned that debates and votes scheduled beyond Tuesday would only be held ‘if necessary.’
Efforts were made to persuade peers to withdraw their opposition to several government bills awaiting approval. These bills need to be passed before the parliamentary session concludes on April 29, ahead of the King’s Speech on May 13.
However, a source from the House of Lords revealed that peers have dismissed the proposal to expedite the legislative process.
‘There was a lot of pressure to push everything through by next Tuesday so that Starmer wouldn’t have to do another PMQs. But people are not having it,’ the source said.
‘The concerns about legislation on things like social media and pensions are genuine – they are not going to be dropped to give the Prime Minister an easier time.’
Bruising: The Prime Minister has endured a series of painful clashes with Kemi Badenoch in recent weeks
Tantrum: Sir Keir was seen having a furious argument with the Speaker after PMQs this week
The bid came as Sir Keir faced calls to apologise to the Speaker after ranting at him in the Commons chamber on Wednesday.
The PM confronted Sir Lindsay in the chamber after being told to stop dodging Mrs Badenoch’s questions.
Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman raised the episode at Business Questions in the Commons on Thursday.
As Sir Lindsay watched on stony-faced, Mr Norman said of 24 responses given by the PM to Mrs Badenoch in recent weeks, 23 had ‘ignored the question and changed the subject’.
‘Yesterday we even saw the PM hectoring you and on live television just for doing your job,’ he said.
‘That is a shameful record, for which the PM should write to you and therefore by implication to this House and apologise.’
Mr Norman said the behaviour ‘is contemptuous of you, of the Leader of the Opposition, and of us all as MPs’.
Asked about the incident, the PM’s spokesman insisted he had ‘addressed all the questions that were put to him yesterday’.
The spokesman confirmed Sir Keir still has confidence in the Speaker.
Allies of the Speaker have pointed out that he regularly gets emails from members of the public complaining that the premier constantly dodges questions at PMQs.
Sir Lindsay interrupted the exchanges with Mrs Badenoch On Wednesday to say: ‘Prime Minister, it’s Prime Minister’s Questions. We’ve got to concentrate.’
Following the heated clashes, the PM was leaving the chamber when he was seen to approach Sir Lindsay’s chair.
One MP who witnessed the scene at close quarters said Sir Keir was clearly incensed at the Speaker.
‘He was fuming with Lindsay,’ they told the Daily Mail.
It was the third occasion in recent weeks in which Sir Lindsay has had to intervene to remind Sir Keir that he is supposed to be answering questions.
The Speaker later issued a statement saying that he occasionally had to remind PMs of the ‘rules of engagement’ in the chamber.
He added, pointedly, that the point had been made to No10 officials ‘on several occasions recently’ following similar interventions on previous weeks.
A spokeswoman for the Speaker’s Office said yesterday: ‘The Speaker is not responsible for the questions asked by Members or the answers given by Ministers.
‘Questions to Ministers should relate to matters for which they are officially responsible. Equally, answers should be confined to the points contained in the question.
‘Every so often the Speaker has to remind Prime Ministers – and Ministers – of the rules of engagement in the Chamber.
‘The Speaker has made this point to officials at No10 on several occasions recently as well.’
