Dorset MP calls PMQs ‘too noisy’ and ‘too intimidating’ to be productive
Mid Dorset's Vikki Slade has called it the “low point of the week”
A Dorset MP has said the atmosphere in The House of Commons can be “quite unpleasant and not constructive”.
Other MPs are also calling for end to the booing and jeering that goes on during Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs).
There are instead calls for ministers to be more respectful of their colleagues and “turn down the boisterousness.”
Mid Dorset & Poole MP Vikki Slade told us: “I know PMQs is seen as the high point of the week, I tend to see it as the low point of the week.
“It's a piece of theatre and doesn't achieve an awful lot, if you haven't got a question, that's the key point. I find that the volume in there to just not helpful to get a good outcome.
“Every time somebody from the other side speaks, there’s people braying and heckling and quite frankly there's no other workplace where your voice would be undermined like that.”
Loud heckling and shouts of "resign" are a common occurrence in heated debates in the Commons, most notably during the weekly war of words at PMQs.
Vikki Slade has called for ministers to move on from the outdated boo-yah(ing) and schoolboy antics and to instead act “more professionally”.
She said: “Parliament looks very different now; it's 40% women and there are MPs from all sorts of backgrounds so why not take this opportunity to improve the behaviour.
“There’s no other parliament in the world that condones this type of behaviour, most sit there and listen to the points made and disagree properly.”
She said if she did not have a question for the PM, she would rather watch from her office than be in the chamber itself.
However, some feel by not attending PMQs, ministers are not properly representing their constituents.
MP Slade told us: “I’ve got an above average speaking record in Parliament and I've spoken more than a hundred times in a variety of debates.
“I find that actually speaking to the rail minister about Wareham, for example, is a much more direct way of getting things to done as the prime minister will only pass it to somebody else.
“So, you absolutely can be effective despite not going to every PMQs, it’s just about being constructive and taking the cases to the right people.”
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