The working day for MPs in the House of Commons chamber has been shorter on average this parliamentary session than in any other in the past quarter century, according to a Financial Times analysis.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been accused of presiding over a “zombie parliament”, with opposition parties arguing the relative shortness of the average parliamentary day shows an administration running “out of steam”.
“There’s very little going on day to day,” conceded one Conservative minister. A Labour insider argued some prime debating slots in the chamber were being dedicated to “niche” issues to fill time.
On Tuesday last week the Commons adjourned at 3.53pm, while on one Monday earlier this month almost five hours were dedicated to an unfocused “general debate on farming”, critics pointed out.
The average duration of a Commons sitting day in the current parliamentary session, which began in November, has been 7 hours and 9 minutes, a record low since New Labour came to power in 1997, the FT found.
Between 1997 and 2023 the average was 7 hours and 58 minutes — or 49 minutes longer than in the current session, the analysis showed. The peak was 9 hours and 15 minutes in the 1998-99 session of Tony Blair’s first administration.
The FT analysis used parliamentary data going back 27 years — the data is available online — as well as Commons Library research.
Each parliament is divided into sessions that usually last about a year and begin with the sovereign’s speech setting out the government’s agenda.
Participating in debates and voting on legislation in the Commons in-person is just one part of an MP’s role, alongside work in their constituency and participation in other activities in parliament, including select committees.
A spokesperson for Commons leader Penny Mordaunt said the government had a “packed legislative agenda”, including Sunak’s flagship bill to get his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda off the ground and legislation underpinning the UK’s accession to the to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The length of the parliamentary day is just one metric opposition MPs have seized on as part of their argument that the pace of substantial legislation under Sunak feels slow.
It is an assessment shared by some Conservatives. One former minister said there was a relative lack of hefty legislation at present: “Other than Rwanda and the Budget, the legislative agenda seems quite thin at the moment.”
The MP said the situation suited their Tory colleagues as they brace for a general election expected later this year with Labour well ahead in the polls.
Conservative MPs “don’t want to be in Westminster, they all want to be in their constituencies campaigning”, the former minister said. “There is an end of term feel to where we are now, even though it’s only March.”
The Liberal Democrats ridiculed ministers for bringing forward a bill to regulate pedicabs in London given there are outstanding issues such as access to GPs, the cost of living crisis, and sewage overflow in rivers and on beaches.
“Rishi Sunak and his cabinet have sat on their hands and presided over a lame-duck government,” said Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dems’ shadow Commons leader.
Lucy Powell, Labour’s shadow Commons leader, said the government was “out of steam” and “failing to deliver on important issues” such as renters reform and rail modernisation, “while making parliament clock off early day in, day out”.
A Labour official claimed it was a “zombie parliament” and said that when the government “schedule business that requires debate, Labour MPs turn up and Tory MPs don’t — even when it is something they are meant to cheerlead like the Budget”.
In the final Budget debate on Tuesday, the last Tory backbencher rose to speak at 4.07pm, after which Labour, Lib Dem and SNP MPs were the only speakers for the next two and a half hours, before a minister concluded the debate.
The Labour official also noted the government recently introduced a “humble address” motion — a formal message to the monarch — after the devolved executive in Northern Ireland was restored. The motion welcomed its return.
The Labour insider suggested the motion was a gimmick to facilitate ministers “patting themselves on the back”. The debate on the address last month lasted almost three hours.
A government official said the “humble address” allowed ministers to fulfil their promise to allow parliament to affirm its commitment to the Union.
They also defended the general debate on farming earlier this month, insisting it was granted at the request of MPs following Sunak’s announcement of new funding for rural communities.
In the King’s speech last November, the government unveiled 21 bills it hoped to pass in this parliamentary session, which will end when Sunak calls a general election, which must happen by January 28, 2025.
So far this session ministers have introduced 26 bills and passed four, while also supporting a raft of private members’ bills to make progress.
The tally of planned public bills in the latest King’s speech was lower than in Queen’s speeches at the beginning of other recent parliamentary sessions.
In the previous three sessions, commencing in May 2022, May 2021 and December 2019, the number of new and carried over bills was 37, 29 and 29 respectively. The total number of bills that received Royal Assent by the end of those sessions was 67, 47 and 54.
A government insider said the 2022-23 session was longer than usual, allowing more legislation to be passed.
Mordaunt’s spokesperson said: “Parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s legislative agenda is contingent on the participation of all members. The government remains committed to facilitating debates on critical issues including leasehold and freehold reform, crime and justice, and rail modernisation in this final session of the parliament.”