Sometimes the House of Commons really does feel like a classroom full of overgrown schoolchildren. So it was in the lead-up to Prime Minister’s Questions today. After Natalie Elphicke’s shock defection last week, there has been fevered speculation (some, if we’re honest, far from serious) about whether a third Tory MP in a month might follow her and Dan Poulter in crossing the floor.
As MPs filed into the chamber ahead of PMQs, there were exaggerated “oooohs” from the Labour benches each time a Conservative entered to take their seats, as though any one of them might suddenly turn and sit behind Keir Starmer instead. No one did, but coming at the tail-end of questions to the Equalities Minister, including one about women harmed by the vaginal mesh scandal, it lent a discordantly unserious tone to proceedings.
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