Prime Minister’s Questions – time for change?

Anyone who regularly watches Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) each Wednesday will be able to notice that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, rarely answers questions. In the vast majority of cases, when faced with a tricky, critical question launched by opposition MPs who rightly want to challenge the government and scrutinize its policies, Boris Johnson simply dodges the question and goes on to talk about what he thinks the government is doing well. There are countless examples of this. One example is when, on the 14th of July this year, in light of the vile racist abuse that three England football players suffered on social media after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final, the SNP leader Ian Blackford asked the PM whether he still stood by his government’s belief that systemic racism was not a problem that existed in the UK. In response to that question, Boris Johnson said that he thought that racism was a problem in the UK and that the government was taking action by legislating for an online harms bill. However, the question wasn’t whether the PM thought that racism still existed, but whether he thought that ‘systemic’ racism still persisted in the UK.

Another classic example occurred on the PMQs edition of the 28th of April. The topic of debate was the refurbishment of the Prime Minister’s flat and whether he had broken any rules during the refurbishment process. The leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer asked Boris Johnson to confirm whether Lord Brownlow had made a payment of £58,000 to help pay for the refurbishment. This was a simple, yes-or-no question but the PM’s answer was vague and irrelevant. Clearly exasperated by the PM’s answer, Keir Starmer then exclaimed: “Answer the question! The Prime Minister hasn’t answered the question, he knows he hasn’t answered the question, he never answers the question!”. On the 7th of July, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, had to intervene twice to remind the PM that he needed to answer the question.

It is clear that there is a problem with PMQs as far as the national interest is concerned, if the PM can freely choose to dodge questions and thereby avoid scrutiny at the hands of MPs. This demonstrates how flawed PMQs is as a mechanism for scrutiny and accountability. How can Parliament hold the government to account if the PM won’t even provide basic answers to reasonable questions? PMQs is particularly important as it is one of the most watched parliamentary proceedings by the general public. This means that not only are MPs denied their right to challenge the government, but a flawed PMQs also undermines faith in our democracy, because the public will just view politics as a chaotic sham. A poll conducted by Hansard Society in 2014 found that while there is a high level of awareness of PMQs – with 54% of the population saying they had heard of it or seen it in the 12 months prior to the poll – the public are not satisfied with the format and feel that it is an ineffective method of accountability.

Therefore, it would be a welcome idea to reform PMQs so that it can properly fulfil its role as an important, constructive mechanism to scrutinize the executive and hold it to account. One of the features of PMQs that should be reformed is its timing. Currently, it only runs for 30 minutes each week. To promote more informed debate, it would be a good idea to extend the time-length of proceedings to 45 minutes or 1 hour. A longer time slot for PMQs would make it harder for MPs and the PM to get away with cheap political point scoring and would facilitate a more in-depth and constructive discussion of the issues. The Speaker of the House of Commons could also be given more powers to force the PM to provide relevant answers. There have been times when the Speaker intervened to tell the PM that he must answer the question, but when the PM defiantly chose to ignore the Speaker’s exhortations and carry on with his vague remarks. One power that could be granted to the Speaker might be to be able to stall proceedings until he is satisfied that the PM has properly addressed the question. Another way of reforming PMQs could be to give the PM time to actually prepare answers to questions before the day of the show-down. Every MP that wants to speak could send their question to the PM no later than 24 hours before the start of PMQs. This system would give the PM no excuse for not answering questions, as he will have been given ample time to prepare his answers.

Prime Minister’s Questions is of enormous importance because it is a key point of reference for people to engage with politics. It is vitally important that the public see an orderly, constructive and well-argued debate rather than a disappointing match of political point scoring and avoiding questions. If the public see PMQs as beneficial, then this will encourage them to engage with politics even more. To achieve this perception, PMQs needs to undergo some significant reforms. These reforms should have a cross-party backing in order for them to be generally accepted and long-lasting. The British people expect no less.