The decline of Prime Minister’s Questions

He may be a disaster as prime minister, but Boris Johnson at the very least might make the weekly parliamentary custom watchable again

One thing about Boris Johnson winning the Conservative leadership is that he might make the main event in parliament interesting again. For many years the main complaint about Prime Minister’s Questions was that it dominated coverage of politics too much.

But in the May-Corbyn years it has become a sideshow. The far end of the chamber used to be full of MPs standing for the weekly jousts; others would be sitting in the gangways. These days there is plenty of room on the benches. The press gallery is mostly empty.

The decline of the main event reached a low point this week. Many MPs, journalists and TV cameras were across the road for Johnson’s leadership campaign launch, an hour before. There was more intense media interest in the six questions journalists were allowed to ask the Tory frontrunner than in the six asked of the prime minister by Jeremy Corbyn a few minutes later.

I was in the press gallery for PMQs and saw Theresa May arrive a few minutes before noon and stand waiting by the speaker’s chair for the right moment to take her seat on the front bench. Tory MPs looked at her as if they vaguely remembered who she was. Those who did remember wore expressions of pity mixed with residual admiration for her willingness to turn up to be humiliated again.

Those moments by the speaker’s chair are always worth watching. Ministers often take the chance for a few words with the prime minister. She always says hello to John Bercow, the speaker – who sometimes doesn’t notice her at first. Their cursory exchange contrasts with the longer conversation Bercow often has with Corbyn, arriving at the same time.

Then the prime minister took her seat, an entrance that used to be greeted with extravagant cheers on the Tory benches. These days both leaders take their places to matching silences from their own side. The Tories can’t even be bothered to do their ironic cheers for Corbyn any more.

This week the speaker downgraded PMQs still further, allowing equalities questions to Penny Mordaunt, minister for equalities, to overrun by a record eight minutes. Then the forgotten leader of the opposition finally got to ask the forgotten prime minister some questions about the forgotten subjects that used to dominate politics before Brexit and, this week, the imminent accession of Boris Johnson.

Once upon a time, we journalists were accused of being too interested in debating-society point-scoring, and indeed on judging the once-weekly clashes as if they were a sporting event. No one could accuse us of that now.

For what it was worth, Theresa May, released from the pressure to perform, gave a clear and confident account of herself. If anyone did accidentally mention Brexit – Corbyn added it to his jambalaya of government “failures” – she said that if they had voted for it, we would have left by now.

And she made fun of Corbyn’s scripted sixth question: “The right honourable gentleman can pose for his YouTube clip as much as he likes.”

But all I could think of was that, although Boris Johnson is probably going to be a disaster as prime minister, he is at least going to make PMQs watchable again.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator