Prime minister's questions (often abbreviated to PMQs and officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister) is questioning by MPs of the prime minister that takes place by constitutional convention in the United Kingdom, since 1997 held as a single session every Wednesday when the House of Commons is sitting, during which the prime minister spends around half an hour answering questions from members of parliament (MPs).
PMQs forms an important part of British political culture and, due to the natural drama of the sessions, it is among the best-known parliamentary business in the country, with tickets to the Strangers' Gallery (the public gallery) for Wednesdays being the most sought-after parliamentary tickets.
Read more about Prime Minister's Questions: History, Practice, Leaders At The Dispatch Box Since 1961, Deputy Prime Minister's Questions
Famous quotes containing the words prime, minister and/or questions:
“No woman in my time will be Prime Minister or Chancellor or Foreign Secretary—not the top jobs. Anyway I wouldn’t want to be Prime Minister. You have to give yourself 100%.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“Before any woman is a wife, a sister or a mother she is a human being. We ask nothing as women but everything as human beings.”
—Ida C. Hultin, U.S. minister and suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 17, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“An answer in words is delusive; it is really no answer to the questions you ask.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)