Prime Minister’s Questions might be shorter now that Lindsay Hoyle is the Speaker, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality of the session is any better. There are still MPs who don’t really see it as an opportunity to ask the Prime Minister a question, preferring instead to compliment him. Today’s worst offender was Michael Tomlinson, the Conservative MP for Mid-Dorset and North Poole, who asked this:
‘For social justice, for life chances, for opportunities for the next generation, education is the key, and that is why the Prime Minister’s pledge for additional funding is so welcome, especially for historically underfunded areas such as Dorset and Poole; but equally important are discipline and standards. Will the Prime Minister ensure that there is a continued focus on the most disadvantaged, especially when it comes to vital literacy and numeracy skills?’
Johnson is hardly going to reply by saying ‘no’, and indeed his answer was largely him trumpeting the plans of his government, telling the Chamber that ‘we need to do more, and as my hon.
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