PMQs sketch: Boris Johnson left alone in deserted House of Commons

That is the usual scene at noon on a Wednesday in the House of Commons, at the week’s set piece - Prime Minister-s Questions - gets going.

But these are not usual times.

As politicians dial in from across the country to probe the PM, he had nowhere to hide.

Join our new coronavirus Facebook group for the latest confirmed news and advice as soon as we get it

In Boris Johnson’s first appearance at PMQs since March 25 - having beaten coronavirus and now facing a new opponent across the despatch box - he looked quite alone.

Unable to hide behind the cheering support of his party loyal, he faltered as Sir Keir Starmer’s measured, fact-backed, and statistic-supported questioning caught him out.

He admitted the dreadful lack of PPE supplies to the frontline had been a problem - “I share his frustration about PPE, and the frustration that I think people have felt across the House and across the country, it has been enraging to see the difficulties we’ve had in supplying PPE to those who need it,” he said.

He admitted the UK’s track and trace policy was abandoned in March because “it exceeded our capacity” to test - not simply because it was “not an appropriate mechanism” overall.

And he surely put the fear into Health Secretary Matt Hancock at his side as he set him yet another target of reaching 200,000 tests a day by the end of the month.

Whether that is tests carried out or capacity who knows, but when reaching 100,000 this month saw Mr Hancock looking like he hadn’t slept in a week, he was no doubt gleeful about his boss’ new plan.

Mr Johnson’s commitments in the Commons today to not return to austerity to fund coronavirus measures also leave a question mark, as his frontbench colleague Rishi Sunak grapples with how to ease out of the £8bn furlough scheme currently supporting 6.3m of Britain’s workers.

For the PM this new type of questioning may come as a surprise after facing Jeremy Corbyn over recent years, but if a precedent is set the waffle and bluster we have come to know Mr Johnson for may not cut it against his new opponent.

---------------------

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor