Speaker on PMQs noise and poor behaviour in Commons

The Speaker claimed that Wednesday's PMQs was "more noisy than I have ever known it" as he called on MPs to think how they are seen by people outside the House of Commons.

He said the behaviour of many members had been "poor", and called on them to "aspire and take steps" to see improvements in future weeks.

He was responding to a point of order from Paul Flynn, who described the weekly session as an "unedifying spectacle of distortion, of evasion and obfuscation".

The Labour MP asked for a seminar to explain the "precise meaning" of question and answer.