By Tony Grew - 16th June 2011
The leader of the House has said he has no plans to move prime minister’s questions to Thursdays to make room for backbench business.
Peter Bone suggested the move to Sir George Young, allowing Thursdays to be restored to "a full business day".
He said that the last government encouraged MPs “to turn up on Monday evening and leave on Wednesday night”.
Sir George said that while he agrees Thursday “should be a paid-up member of the parliamentary week”.
He told the House that there have been 38 sitting Thursdays in this Parliament, and 21 of those were whipped.
“When the backbench business committee has tabled business on a Thursday that has required a division there has been a good turnout by members of Parliament, so I am not sure that I entirely accept the view that Thursday is not a fully paid-up member of the parliamentary week.”
Natascha Engel, chair of the backbench business committee, said Bone’s suggestion would allow for “one day every week in the parliamentary calendar as a backbench day, which would surely be helpful to the leader of the House and the business managers as the government could then schedule business around us”.
Sir George said the advantage of the current arrangements is flexibility.
James Gray (Con, North Wiltshire) reminded the leader of the House that when he ran for Speaker "he himself brought forward the notion of moving prime minister’s questions to a Thursday".
Sir George said that while on the backbenches he could "do some blue-sky thinking but my horizons are now more constrained".
He added that David Cameron is "more than satisfied with the current arrangements for prime minister’s questions".
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