James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s conciliatory approach takes the sting out of PMQs

Boris Johnson has been Prime Minister since July, but he has done PMQs relatively few times. This means that he is still developing his style. What was striking about his appearance today was just how conciliatory his tone was with everyone but Jeremy Corbyn and Ian Blackford.

When Wera Hobhouse asked about the difficulties facing a Kurdish refugee in her constituency, Johnson replied that she should send the details of the case to him personally. Teesside Labour MP Alex Cunningham pushed him on a campaign to prevent nuclear waste being dumped in the region. The PM expressed sympathy and asked him to send the campaign to him. SNP MP Dave Doogan argued that the seasonal workers’ scheme for agriculture was nowhere near generous enough, Boris Johnson didn’t disagree. Instead he said the government was looking at it to see it was sufficient for the needs of agriculture in both Scotland and the rest of the UK.

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