The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
May in no rush as session overruns
Westminster: PMQs last for a record 45 minutes
Theresa May has been in Downing Street only six months but she has already beaten a record set by her p r e d e c e s s o r Dav i d Cameron: the longest session of prime minister’s questions.
Mrs May took questions for 45 minutes in theHouse of Commons just before Christmas – five minutes beyond the longest bout endured by Mr Cameron.
The weekly grilling of the prime minister by MPs is scheduled to last just halfan-hour.
But speaker John Bercow has let the session overrun in order to allow more questions to be answered.
MrsMay has appeared at prime minister’s questions 13 times so far, and her sessions have averaged 40 minutes.
By contrast , Mr Cameron’s sessions began by averaging around 32 minutesandhadrisen to35 minutes by the time of his resignation in July 2016.
Since becoming prime minister, Mrs May has answered 386 questions – n i n e more t h a n Mr Cameron was asked during his first 13 appearances.
In November 2015, Mr Cameron was picked up on a House of Commons microphone complaining to Mr Bercow that prime minister’s questions was getting “longer and longer”.
The session he was referring to lasted only 36 minutes, but since then debates have run for up to three- quarters of an hour.
Timing is not the only difference between Mrs May and Mr Cameron’s performances at the dispatch box.
Mr Cameron referred to thick ring-binders of notes during the debates, was quick to reply to questions and sometimes gave boisterous answers.
Mrs May has so far used only a thin sheaf of papers and conducted herself in a more subdued manner, taking time to give her replies.
“Prime minister’s question time is meant to last just 30 minutes”