Coronavirus: 'Virtual' parliament leaves government less accountable
Sky News' John Craig pens a sketch on the historic social distancing taking place inside the House of Commons now.
Thursday 23 April 2020 13:42, UK
Considering this was a day of firsts in the House of Commons, it was perhaps a shame that so few MPs - between 30 and 40 - were in the chamber to take part.
It was the first time "in 700 years of history" that Prime Minister's Questions had been conducted by videolink, Speaker Hoyle declared at the start of the day's proceedings, which began with Welsh questions - one of the lowlights of the parliamentary week.
It was the first outing at PMQs for Dominic Raab, first secretary of state and Boris Johnson's stand-in while he recovers from coronavirus. He is a deputy chosen for his unswerving loyalty to the Brexit cause rather than flair or ability.
And it was the first PMQs for Sir Keir Starmer since his election as Labour leader.
Wisely, he opted to attend in person rather than appear remotely, as the other opposition party leaders - Ian Blackford, Sir Ed Davey and Liz Savile-Roberts - chose to.
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But after this historic PMQs, the overwhelming conclusion must be that from the government's point of view "if this is parliamentary scrutiny, let's have more of it".
It's early days, obviously, but this is a poor substitute for the real thing.
There's no cut and thrust, tension or pressure and on the evidence so far, ministers are going to get off lightly.
But of the three historic firsts, however, it was Sir Keir who was probably the most successful: courteous but forensic, detailed but not too bogged down by statistics.
A solid start, but then most Labour MPs will conclude that he didn't have to be that good to be better than his predecessor.
Talking of whom, Jeremy Corbyn turned up, sitting on the back row at the end of the chamber furthest from the Speaker, where he sat for many years in his left-wing rebel days.
He wasn't called in PMQs, but did ask a question during the Health Secretary Matt Hancock's coronavirus statement later, however. Wasn't Mr Corbyn flouting coronavirus for the over-70s, though?
Labour's new leader even bettered the stand-in PM in the "hear hear" stakes from their own backbenchers.
Both entered the chamber in silence just before noon, in keeping with the subdued - eerie, even - atmosphere. But Sir Keir's MPs were more vocal when they cheered on their man.
The undoubted star of the proceedings, predictably, was Speaker Hoyle, who has played a blinder in making sure parliament was back in action on time after the Easter recess this week.
Questions via Zoom meant the 62-year-old rugby league fanatic was bobbing up and down in the chair like a hyper-active scrum half. Man-of-the-match to Sir Lindsay.
The technology was only a qualified success. Before PMQs, the Welsh Secretary Simon Hart - unkindly described by some as a Brian Clough lookalike - managed to answer all his questions without any hitches. But a question by the Labour MP Kevin Brennan was lost in a dodgy phone signal.
In PMQs, the first Tory due to be called after the Raab-Starmer exchanges, former Scottish secretary David Mundell, missed out.
"Unable to connect!" boomed Sir Lindsay. Sadly, Mr Mundell didn't get a second chance later in PMQs.
And Mr Raab, despite his appearances standing in for the prime minister at several Downing Street news conferences now, still can't relax.
He looks nervous, is still somewhat robotic and lacks the confidence of contemporaries like Michael Gove or former top Tories like David Cameron, George Osborne or William Hague.
Even his medical bulletin on his boss's recovery was wooden and lacked empathy. "He is making a good recovery and is in good spirits," he said, repeating the familiar Downing Street script.
Then came a gem that stretched credibility, however.
"I know he would want to be here," he said in response to Sir Keir's first question.
Really? Most prime minister's don't relish PMQs and do everything they can to avoid them. The real thing, that is. Not this gentler version.
But we should have some sympathy for Mr Raab. The social distancing rules imposed by the Commons authorities penalise the person at the despatch box more than anyone else.
During PMQs, the nearest figure to Mr Raab was the burly figure of the Chief Whip Mark Spencer, a ruddy-faced farmer from Nottinghamshire with a bone-crushing handshake.
But Mr Spencer was the required two metres away and there was no other minister within shouting distance - let alone whispering distance - of the lonely Mr Raab.
Normally at PMQs, the Prime Minister and his or her Cabinet are squashed together on the front bench and the PM has a chosen ally alongside to act as prompt with a good gag or important point of detail.
On economic questions, the chancellor of the exchequer is usually on hand, though George Osborne acted as David Cameron's prompt on just about every issue.
The other problem for Mr Raab - and indeed other ministers in the weeks ahead - was that there was no-one behind him to feed him bits of paper with key answers to difficult questions.
Normally the parliamentary private secretary - bag carrier - sits directly behind the PM or Cabinet minister constantly supplying briefing notes.
Not this time - you're on your own in this virtual House of Commons, minister!
The government and opposition benches were both very sparsely occupied. Just a few diehards, workaholics and parliamentary procedure nerds on either side. OK, unfair. Conscientious and diligent representatives of the people!
On the opposition front bench, the wise and wily Labour chief whip Nick Brown - now serving his fourth party leader - was in his place.
But Labour's new deputy leader Angela Rayner was so far from Sir Keir they couldn't possibly have communicated with each other.
The civilised tone of the Raab-Starmer exchanges did almost come to an abrupt end after the Labour leader's last question, when he repeated his "too slow on the lockdown, too slow on testing, too slow on PPE and now too slow on care homes" attack that he first used in a Mail on Sunday article.
Unflappable until that point, Mr Raab was tetchy in his response.
Talking of diehard backbenchers, rather surprisingly the Tory veteran Peter Bone chose to use technology rather turn up in person.
But he asked a blockbuster of a question, on banks failing to help adequately those businesses in trouble because of the lockdown, before he was mysteriously cut off.
The Parliamentary TV director did enterprisingly cut to Mr Bone shaking his head in frustration at Mr Raab's reply, however.
Labour's best backbench question came from Barry Gardiner, the great survivor - until now - ruthlessly sacked by Sir Keir in his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle.
Had the government followed the scientific advice on coronavirus or not, was the question Barry bellowed from his living room. Hell hath no fury like a shadow cabinet member sacked by his party leader!
Most MPs observed the virtual dress code demanded by Mr Speaker, though Sir Ed Davey was tieless, as was Kevin Brennan, which may explain why there were gremlins in his phone signal earlier.
From MPs dialling in, we were treated to the sight of some impressive bookcases (Plaid Cymru's Liz Saville Roberts' library looked very learned during her predictable attack on second homers in Wales) and some attractive artwork (Ruth Cadbury's stood out).
Stephen Kinnock's decor was minimalist and Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher's wallpaper fetchingly floral.
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford dialled in from what looked like a homely living room in his Highland crofter's cottage, complete with what looked like a greetings card behind him. Image is everything in politics. (He is an ex-banker, though.)
The final question was from brainy Angela Eagle, who also boasted impressive book shelves, although there appeared to be an opened box of chocolates on the top shelf. Celebrations? Not in these serious times, surely. Heroes? Possibly.
When PMQs was over, after an extended session of 45 minutes, Mr Hancock began his statement by declaring: "How pleased I am that this House is sitting once again."
He probably didn't feel that way after his lengthy and uncomfortable interrogation by MPs, though a number of Tories were relieved and thankful that the Commons was not at its most brutal.
In comparison with Mr Hancock, already being tipped as the first ministerial casualty of the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis after his increasingly unachievable 100,000 tests pledge, Mr Raab got off comparatively lightly in PMQs.
No wonder the government is happy with this form of scrutiny.
In the weeks ahead, after this solid debut Sir Keir will undoubtedly be tougher with Mr Raab. Unless the Labour leader is saving his sharpest attacks until the prime minister is fit enough to return to PMQs.
But we also need the Commons to return to its usual boisterous, raucous and spontaneous normality if government ministers are to be held truly accountable.