Ben Bradshaw urges MPs to boycott “rowdy” PMQs

Former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw tells his local paper:

 “PMQs has become so awful I would rather be doing something more useful with my time like responding to constituents’ letters. I still table a question every week and if my name is drawn or I have a burning local issue I want to try to raise in a supplementary question I attend, but most weeks I don’t. The noise and rowdiness in the Commons’ chamber is much worse than the public realise, because they only hear what is broadcast by the single microphone activated above the head of the person speaking. If you’re actually in the Chamber yourself, the cacophony is dreadful and you often can’t hear what Ed Miliband or David Cameron are saying.”

“The whole spectacle is deeply off-putting to most people and sets a terrible example to young people. If more MPs boycotted it might improve. The Speaker does his best to keep order and occasionally names the worst offenders, but he should be much tougher and throw them out.”