Commons in FITS as May mocks SNP for ruining her evening telly by droning on about Brexit

The Prime Minister sparked laughter on the Conservative benches as she responded to concerns about filibustering – a tactic to waste time in parliamentary debates.

The SNP’s Patrick Grady had used Prime Minister’s Questions to call for Mrs May to back new rules limiting the amount of time MPs can speak for in the House of Commons.

It is believed the Glasgow North MP had been referring to long speeches by Tories as the SNP, Labour and Liberal Democrats attempted to add amendments to the Government’s Brexit Bill this week.

Mr Grady asked: “Does the Prime Minister agree in a 21st century parliament the rules should not enable any member to speak for 58 minutes in a three-hour debate?

“Does she agree with me the rules should be changed to prevent filibustering and to ensure members from all sides of the House have fair share of the time available?”

But the Prime Minister informed Mr Grady he was “the last person to complain about filibustering in this House”.

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Theresa May sparked laughter among Tory MPs

I switched back and you were still speaking!

Theresa May

Revealing she had been keeping an eye on last night’s debate over the Government’s proposed Article 50 legislation, which would hand Mrs May the power to trigger Brexit, the Prime Minister said: “I have to say I find that a rather curious question.

“Last night as it happens I was out of the House between the two votes. I switched on the BBC parliamentary channel and I saw you speaking. I turned over to something else.”

Amid laughter from her own MPs, Mrs May added: “I switched back to the parliamentary channel – I saw you still speaking. I switched over to something else.

“I switched back and you were still speaking!

“He's the last person to complain about filibustering in this House.”

Political Scandals
Mon, February 6, 2017

Political scandals involving politicians are not unheard of.

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The SNP failed in their attempts to add amendments to the Article 50 Bill in a series of House of Commons votes last night.

On Monday, former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond was involved in a furious row with House of Commons deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle after he claimed a fellow SNP MP had been cut off from speaking.

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