Summary

  • The first Prime Minister's Questions since the General Election takes place

  • MPs pay tribute to ex-Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy, who died aged 55 on Monday

  1. Tories bouyantpublished at 11:55 British Summer Time 3 June 2015

    Conservative MP tweets...

  2. What is PMQs?published at 11:54

    A beginners' guide

    Each week on Wednesday afternoon the prime minister must come to the House of Commons to answer oral questions for half an hour.

    MPs do not normally give the prime minister prior notice of the subject which they are going to raise. 

    This element of surprise allows opposition MPs, in particular, to try to catch the prime minister out with an awkward question, although they are not allowed to ask follow-up questions which limits their scrutinising powers.

    The only people who get more than one question are the leader of the opposition (Harriet Harman today) who gets to ask six questions, and the leader of the next biggest opposition party - the SNP - who get two questions.

    Government backbenchers can normally be relied upon to ask a "helpful" question which will allow the prime minister to tell the House about successful government policies. 

    The relative performance of each of the main party leaders is closely watched and each is under great pressure to get the better of their opponent. 

    The names of the MPs who will get the chance to ask the prime minister a question are drawn in a weekly lottery.

  3. Female MPspublished at 11:53 British Summer Time 3 June 2015

    Barrister and social justice commentator tweets...

  4. Downing Street on MPs' paypublished at 11:53

    MP's pay is likely to crop up in some form at Prime Minister's Questions. Perhaps anticipating that, a No 10 spokeswoman has insisted that David Cameron opposes the proposed £7,000 increase but says it is now a matter for the independent watchdog and will not rule out the prime minister accepting the increase.

    Quote Message

    The prime minister's approach is clear. He has opposed this increase. It is for Ipsa as an independent body to determine what MPs are paid. The prime minister is an MP. There is MPs' pay set by Ipsa. The salary that the PM controls is ministerial pay. When he entered office he cut ministerial pay and then he froze it. He made clear a couple of weeks ago that he will freeze it for five more years. That is freezing ministerial pay for a decade."

  5. Family politicspublished at 11:52

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Keith Vaz

    The Speaker is spoilt for choice as Labour's brother and sister duo Valerie and Keith Vaz both try to catch the Speaker's eye to ask the International Development Secretary a question. "The sibling rivalry lives on," he quips, before choosing Mr Vaz to go first.

  6. 'Shy Tories'published at 11:50

    The Daily Politics

    The Daily Politics has been looking at why the opinion polls before the election failed to predict the actual result. YouGov's Peter Kellner says he is "not ruling out" any explanations pending the findings of an inquiry by the polling industry into why they got things wrong. But he says there are some signs pointing to the phenomenon known as "shy Tories" with people "reluctant to say there are going to vote Conservative" before actually doing so. 

  7. Poll watch...published at 11:51 British Summer Time 3 June 2015

  8. Standing room only?published at 11:46

    Commons chamber

    The Commons chamber is filling up ahead of the first Prime Minister's Questions of the new Parliament.

  9. Schools reformspublished at 11:42

    School classroom

    Tory minister David Gauke says there is "particular issue" with turning failing schools under local authority control into academies which needs to be addressed, citing examples of schools in London and Derby which faced "long battles" to change status, and once they did, have been transformed. But Labour's Chris Bryant suggests the change is ideologically-driven and since Ofsted cannot currently inspect academy chains, parents have "no recourse" to action if things go wrong. 

    Read the full story

  10. Private Members' Billspublished at 11:40

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Speaker

    Before the business of the day starts, the Speaker reminded MPs that the ballot for private members' bills, external for the upcoming 2015-16 session will take place on Thursday morning.

    Private members' bills give MPs the chance to introduce a bill on a subject of their choosing.

    Twenty names are drawn in reverse order, with the last member drawn having the pick of one of the 13 Friday sittings, which are scheduled for debating private members' bills. 

    MPs usually choose the first Friday to come up, making it the most likely to succeed. First readings are due to take place on Wednesday 24 June.

    A couple of success stories that made it through parliament in the last session:

    -  Control of Horses Act 2015 , external

    -  International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015 , external

  11. Kennedy tributespublished at 11:42 British Summer Time 3 June 2015

  12. Daily Politics under waypublished at 11:38

    The Daily Politics

    Chris Bryant and David Gauke

    The Daily Politics is under way on BBC Two. Ninety minutes of political chat and - of course - the first prime minister's questions of the new Parliament. Labour's Chris Bryant and the Conservatives' David Gauke are Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn's guests for the duration of the show. 

  13. They're offpublished at 11:35

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    The day has kicked off in the House of Commons with international development questions.

    MPs are raising issues from the Mediterranean migration crisis to the Syrian conflict with International Secretary Justine Greening and her ministerial team.

    First up is the Labour MP Richard Burden asking a question on the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

  14. Focus on ideas says Scottish Labour contenderpublished at 11:30

    Labour MSP Ken MacintoshImage source, PA

    Scottish Labour needs to stop defining itself by its opposition to the SNP and the Conservatives, Ken Macintosh has said as he formally launched his leadership campaign. The Eastwood MSP, who also stood to be party leader in 2011, will compete with Kezia Dugdale for the job to succeed Jim Murphy. 

    Quote Message

    I do not want to ask people to vote Labour to block the Tories in London or to stop the SNP in Edinburgh; I want them to want to vote Labour because we have the ideas, the vision and the values to deliver a better future for Scotland."

    Ken Macintosh, Labour MSP

  15. 'You're paying the obscene cost of litter'published at 11:25

    The Daily Politics

    Councils in the UK spend almost £1bn a year trying to tackle the problem of litter.

    And John Read, from Clean Up Britain, said of the cost: “Nobody told you that during the general election.”

    In a personal film airing on Wednesday's Daily Politics, after PMQs, he is calling for a campaign to look at the cost of the clean-up, and show throwing litter to be anti-social, mirroring a move against drink drinking.

    And he called for litter fines to be seen as a "serious and credible possibility". Watch his film

    John Read from Clean Up Britain
  16. Tug-of-warpublished at 11:20

    It is one of the great events in the sporting calendar - well in a small corner of SW1 anyway. After a titanic struggle on Tuesday, MPs prevailed against their honourable friends in the House of Lords in the annual MacMillan Cancer Support tug-of-war between the two Houses. Here are some images from the event.

    Image from annual Commons/Lords tug-of-warImage source, Eamonn McCormack
    Image caption,

    Alec Shelbrooke was one of the rocks in the Commons team, which was skippered by policing minister Mike Penning

    Image from annual Commons/Lords tug-of-warImage source, Eamonn McCormack
    Image caption,

    The vanquished peers included novelist Lord Dobbs and Cobra beer founder Lord Bilimoria

    Image from annual Westminster tug-of-warImage source, Eamonn McCormack
    Image caption,

    It was a case of so near yet so far for the women's Commons team, including Antoinette Sandbach and rail minister Claire Perry, who lost to a Macmillan scratch line-up.

  17. Farron on Lib Dem contestpublished at 11:12 British Summer Time 3 June 2015

    Lib Dem leadership contenders Tim Farron (left) and Norman LambImage source, PA

    Lib Dem leadership candidate Tim Farron (left) says he has been nominated by more than 400 party members, representing 100 local branches, to lead the party. Ahead of the deadline for nominations later today, Mr Farron says he is "deeply honoured" to have received such breadth of support and will focus his campaign on "rebuilding the party from the grassroots" and talking about issues such as human rights, the environment and building a "new economy". Norman Lamb (right), who is expected to be Mr Farron's sole opponent, is also expected to easily qualify to take part in the election contest, which will be decided in July. 

  18. How many questions?published at 11:01

    David Cameron and Harriet HarmanImage source, PA

    There's been a little bit of confusion among journalists this morning about how many questions Harriet Harman will get to ask David Cameron when they clash at midday. Labour has cleared this up by confirming that it stays at six - the same that Ed Miliband had at his disposal in the last Parliament. What will change is that we will be seeing a lot more of Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in the Commons. He will have two questions every week, the same number that outgoing Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg had between 2008 and 2010. Incidentally, the next Lib Dem leader, when he is chosen in July, will get a chance to ask a question every three weeks, in rotation with the DUP and Plaid Cymru. In the last Parliament, of course, Nick Clegg was answering the questions as deputy prime minister and his party's reduced total reflects the drop in its numerical strength in the Commons from nearly 60 MPs to just eight. 

  19. More on Coulsonpublished at 10:56

    Andy Coulson arriving in the High Court in EdinburghImage source, PA

    More on Andy Coulson's acquittal of perjury charges. Lord Burns, the trial judge in the High Court in Edinburgh, gave his ruling on Monday but it could not be reported until today as the Crown was given time to decide whether to appeal against the ruling. It decided not to appeal and Mr Coulson is expected to leave court shortly. He is still serving the non-custodial part of a 18-month sentence imposed in June 2014 after his conviction for conspiring to intercept mobile phone messages while News of the World Editor.

    Read the full story

  20. Coulson cleared of perjury chargespublished at 10:25

    Andy CoulsonImage source, PA

    Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who later became David Cameron's director of communications, has been cleared at the High Court in Edinburgh of committing perjury at the 2010 trial of former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan after the judge ruled he had no case to answer.

    Read full story