Boris Johnson Firmly Put In His Place By The Commons’ Speaker: ‘Sit Down Prime Minister!’

Boris Johnson was told off by the speaker of the House of Commons during prime minister’s questions on Wednesday during a rather embarrassing exchange.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle spoke over the prime minister when he was tried to dodge a question from Sir Keir Starmer and reminded Johnson: “I’m not going to be challenged.

“You may be the prime minister of this country – but in this house, I’m in charge!”

The leader of the opposition – Labour’s leader, Starmer – was pressing the prime minister over former Tory MP Owen Paterson, who was a paid lobbyist for health company Randox and briefly defended by the government before a dramatic U-turn.

This firm won government contracts worth almost £600 million without competition, triggering concerns about how Downing Street spent taxpayer’s money.

Starmer asked: “There’s only one way to get to the bottom of this – if he [the prime minister] votes for Labour’s motion this afternoon, that [Randox] investigation can start. Will he vote for it or will he vote for another coverup?”

Johnson replied: “I’m very happy to publish all the details of the Randox contract, which is being investigated by the National Audit Office already.

“Talking of coverups – I’m sorry Mr Speaker, but we still have not heard why the honourable gentleman will not –”

Hoyle interrupted the attempts to talk about Starmer’s own work outside of Parliament when he was a backbencher, urged the prime minister to “sit down” and told him “that’s the end of that” to the cheers of the opposition benches.

Johnson tried to quiz Sir Keir Starmer on his own second job outside parliament
Johnson tried to quiz Sir Keir Starmer on his own second job outside parliament

BBC Parliament

Hoyle had already called for order repeatedly in the Commons just 10 minutes into the weekly prime minister’s questions.

He also reminded Johnson “although I don’t want to fall out”, this time of the week is for prime minister’s questions, not questions to the opposition about their conduct.

“Whether you like it or not, those are the rules of the game that we are into, and and we play by the rules don’t we? And we respect the house so let’s respect the house,” Hoyle said pointedly.

When MPs continued to shout across the house at each other, Hoyle told them: “Look, we’ve already lost a dear friend – I want to show that this house has learnt from it.”

He was referring Paterson, who resigned in November after his breach of parliamentary lobbying rules triggered a sleaze scandal.

The government briefly tried to get Paterson off the hook for breaching lobbying rules but it has since turned into a national row about MPs’ standards and has centred on behaviour in the Tory Party.

Hoyle continued: “I don’t want each other to be shouted down. I want questions to be respected, I want the public to actually be able to hear the answers – because I’m struggling in this chair. I need no more.”

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Ed Miliband Reminds Us Starmer’s Driving Test Fail Could Have Been Worse: ‘It’s Hardly The Bacon Sandwich’

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Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday (L) and shadow cabinet minister Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband was quick to defend Sir Keir Starmer over his HGV driving disaster by comparing it to one of his one embarrassing moments as Labour leader.

Miliband, now shadow business secretary, spoke to Sky’s Kay Burley about the Labour leader’s PR slip-up from Tuesday where he tried (and failed) to drive a lorry.

Burley said: “Certainly don’t want your leader to be an HGV driver – did you see what he did yesterday?”

Miliband replied: “Come on – it’s hardly the bacon sandwich is it, Kay?”

They laughed, but Burley pointed out that Starmer still failed his mock HGV driving test.

The shadow cabinet minister replied: “He was drawing attention to the fact that we need trained HGV drivers, it was all part of the plan.”

Burley has not been the only person to find Starmer’s driving attempts rather excruciating – especially when the driving instructor told him to “move to the left”, something Labour’s left-wing faction have long been trying to do with the party’s leader.

Journalist David Jack tweeted: “Who in Keir Starmer’s office thought that this was a good idea?”

However, Miliband’s own PR efforts as Labour leader were arguably more entertaining.

A photograph of him eating a bacon sandwich with an unusual expression on his face became an infamous internet meme in 2014 when he was campaigning for local elections.

It soon played a key part  in the criticism towards Miliband, as his opponents said it captured his awkwardness and inability to do ordinary tasks.

It was used on the front page of The Sun newspaper the day before the 2015 general election, which saw Labour lose 26 seats in Parliament.

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