The Tories "are planning to move PMQs to Thursdays"

Today's Daily Mail suggests that if David Cameron is elected Prime Minister next year, he would seek to move Prime Minister's Questions to Thursdays instead of Wednesdays, where it has been a fixture since 1997. Before then, of course, there had for decades  been two 15-minute sessions on Tuesday and Thursdays, but Tony Blair rolled them into the one half-hour session on Wednesdays as soon as he became Prime Minister.

The report suggests that the move would be to ensure more MPs were in Westminster for more of the week. A "senior Commons official" is quoted by the Mail, who says that Shadow Leader of the House Sir George Young has already discussed the matter with Speaker Bercow:

"Sir George Young has made it clear that he is keen to move PMQs to Thursdays. He thinks it's necessary to lengthen the working week and make sure MPs don't knock off quite so early on a Thursday. He thinks the best way to do that would be to move PMQs since most MPs would want to stay around."

Jonathan Isaby