Reform UK leader Nigel Farage performatively sat in the spectators’ gallery, instead of on the MPs’ benches in the chamber, as he whined about not getting to speak in PMQs
Nigel Farage has been ridiculed after staging a lame stunt in Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Reform UK leader performatively sat in the spectators’ gallery in the House of Commons, instead of on the MPs’ benches in the chamber, as he whined about not getting to speak during the debating session.
Mr Farage, who sat with Brexit bankroller and pal Arron Banks, branded himself a “mere spectator” – and apparently ignored the fact that MPs’ names are selected for questions in PMQs using a randomised ballot.
MPs ridiculed the right-wing politician’s shameless stunt and pointed out that Mr Farage had often missed parliamentary sessions to jet off to the US – and that his stunt showed that representing his constituents in the chamber was not his priority.
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At the first PMQs after the summer, Keir Starmer launched a blistering attack on the Reform UK leader after he swanned off to the US to badmouth Britain and missed the session. “The honourable member for Clacton (Mr Farage) is not here representing his constituents in the House that he was elected to,” the PM said. “No, he’s flown to America to badmouth and talk down our country.”
But today, Mr Farage said: “Every week at PMQs I am attacked by the PM and Labour MPs, but have no right of reply. I am just a mere spectator. So I have decided to spectate from the public gallery today instead.”
Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “The thing is Farage has always been a spectator happy to complain about the other players or the umpire but never take responsibility for the failures of his own policies. It’s a lucrative place of course, commenting from the touch line.”
A Labour source said: “Nigel Farage and his Reform MPs only turn up to parliament for social media clips. Perhaps Farage can spend his self-imposed exile from his job reflecting on the damage his plans would do to Britain.”
One Labour MP told The Mirror :”He’s hardly ever here so he’s trying to play smart. But MPs and the public are not that stupid. He needs to be in Parliament in the chamber because that’s what he is elected to do.”
Another Labour MP added: “He’s obviously still unfamiliar with how PMQs work. Must be due to him hardly being there. Why doesn’t he bob like other backbenchers?”
A Lib Dem spokeswoman said: “It’s not the first time Farage has made a habit of looking down on people.”
Mr Farage last week whined about not being able to speak during PMQs, saying: “Yet another session of PMQs where I get mentioned but can’t respond. There is not much point me even being there.”
There are 15 questions on the Order Paper for PMQs. A ballot (known as the ‘shuffle’) is run on a computer programme to decide by random which MPs will ask questions and the order they will be asked in. The MPs are listed in the Order Paper and the Speaker calls on MPs in that order.
In addition to the MPs drawn in the ‘shuffle’, the Leader of the official Opposition – Tory leader Kemi Badenoch usually asks six questions, and the leader of the third largest party – Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey – two questions.
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