Cabinet minister criticised for ‘reheated mish-mash of party political lines’

MPs should play bingo in the Commons chamber and mark off their cards when they hear a “reheated mish-mash of standard party-political lines”, a Conservative frontbencher has suggested.

Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman accused Cabinet minister Lucy Powell of “evasions” at the despatch box, during their weekly Business Questions exchanges.

Ms Powell, the Leader of the House of Commons, said on Thursday that Mr Norman had failed to ask her a question to which she could respond.

Mr Norman told MPs: “These joyous Thursday morning sessions seem to have fallen into a little bit of a rut.

“‘No, no,’ I hear you cry. ‘Business Questions is still as fresh and lively and engaging as it ever was, if not more so.’

“But sadly I fear that is not true.”

The Conservative MP described Business Questions as an opportunity to “press public concerns and raise questions about the Government”, adding: “The Leader of the House rarely, if ever, responds to the important public questions and concerns that I raise.

“Instead, I’m sorry to say, we get the same endlessly reheated mish-mash of standard party-political lines, personal jibes and irrelevant comment.”

Mr Norman later continued: “We need a better way to track and monitor these evasions, so in the spirit of openness and transparency, I would like to propose a new approach which we can call ‘Leaders’ Bingo’.

“Colleagues get a point every time the Leader blames the previous government, attacks members of the Opposition, changes the subject, or uses the words ‘gently remind’, ‘take no lectures’ or similar in her response.

“I would not for one second suggest that colleagues shout ‘bingo’ in the chamber, but there may be other ways in which they can indicate when they have filled their card.”

Responding, Ms Powell noted that Thursday marked World Book Day.

Mr Norman laughed when she said he had “come as his favourite author – himself – and for those who haven’t read the thrilling historical novel The Winding Stair, it is still available in all good bookshops”.

The Commons Leader went on to say: “He says that I’ve not given him any answers any weeks that we’ve been standing here, but if he wants me to tell him again today where he’s gone wrong, I’m happy to give him some advice about that if he really wants it.

“And I’m happy to tell him that yes, in fact, his government did get many things wrong and we are getting many things right.

“If he wants to play Business Questions bingo, perhaps we can start by saying ‘bingo’ every time he actually asks me a question, because there wasn’t much of that that we heard today.”

Defending the Government’s record, Ms Powell said this week ministers had confirmed the first 750 schools to offer free breakfast clubs, and started work on “ending the 8am scramble” at GP surgeries with reforms to doctors’ contracts.

She also said the Government had started dealing with a backlog in the courts with 4,000 more court sitting days in the next financial year – bringing the total to 110,000 – and had pressed ahead with a £1.5 billion “Plan for Neighbourhoods” across 75 UK council areas.

Ms Powell outlined parliamentary business for the next two weeks, with the Crime and Policing Bill second reading on Monday March 10, followed by the Employment Rights Bill’s remaining stages across two days on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12, general debates on the future of farming and mental health support in educational settings on Thursday 13, and private members’ bills on Friday 14.

MPs are set to debate on Monday March 17 and Tuesday 18 the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill’s remaining stages, followed by Lords amendments to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill on Wednesday 19, with general debates on coastal communities and knife crime among children and young people on Thursday 20.