PM Questions are ‘nasty, aggressive and angry.’
This is what 50 politics students were told in an exclusive chat with their MP on a trip to Parliament.
Liz Kendall, MP for West Leicester, which covers the student population of Narborough Road and Fosse Road South, chatted to the group as part of a DMU visit to Westminster.
She confided that the weekly sessions where Parliament grills the PM were ‘horrid.
“They are nasty, aggressive and angry and a hostile way to raise questions.” she said.
The session was interrupted as Liz was talking when the division bell rang, forcing her to run to the House of Commons and vote on a modern slavery bill.
The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, the Speaker of the House, also spoke to the group about his career.
The man in charge of keeping the House of Commons in order told the politics and journalism students that he felt a ‘bond was forming between [him] and the university.’
Mr Bercow was awarded the honorary title Doctor of Laws from De Montfort in January after chairing a debate held in Trinity House.
Heather, a 3rd year Politics student, said: “I enjoyed the talk with Liz, and the division bell going off gave us a real insight into how Parliament works.”
Alieu Ceesay, a first year International Relations student, said: “What I found quite interesting was the talk with the Speaker and hearing about his roles, his work abroad and how he had succeeded in his modernisation of Parliament.
“His honesty about people’s perceptions of politics and politicians was insightful and what he is doing in his capacity as a speaker to gain that trust back is great.”
