What time is PMQs today? When does Prime Minister’s Questions start, how to watch live, what channel is it on?

Keir Starmer will be in the Commons to face the PM for the first time since the leak of an email inviting staff to a lockdown gathering
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Boris Johnson will face MPs at noon today (Wednesday 12 January), battling to save his premiership over allegations about a “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden in an apparent breach of Covid lockdown rules.

The Commons chamber is expected to be packed for Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), as MPs watch to see if he can turn round an increasingly perilous position.

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will face Johnson after negative Covid-19 tests released him from self-isolation.

It will be the Prime Minister’s first public appearance since the leak of an email from his principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting Downing Street staff to the gathering in May 2020 to “make the most of the lovely weather”.

Johnson has refused to say if he was present at the May event, despite reports he and his fiancee (now wife), Carrie Symonds, were among around 30 people to attend at a time when such gatherings were banned.

The Prime Minister has said it is a matter for Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who is investigating a series of reported parties in Downing Street and elsewhere in Whitehall in the course of 2020 to determine what happened.

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Here is everything you need to know about today’s anticipated PMQs.

What time is PMQs?

Prime Minister’s questions will start at its usual time of 12pm and is expected to run for around half an hour.

How to watch PMQs and stream online?

You can livestream PMQs on a host of channels.

BBC Parliament will be streaming PMQs via BBC iPlayer while Sky News will also be providing live coverage on YouTube.

Parliament Live TV will also stream the session.

What can we expect?

It is likely that there will be anger across the Commons with Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP and others all expected to quiz Johnson on the allegations.

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However, we may also see some revolt from the Conservatives with many MPs thought to be losing faith in the PM.

Backbencher Nigel Mills warned that any senior figure who willingly attended the event could not have a position where they were responsible for setting Covid-19 policy.

“It is utterly untenable, we have seen people resign for far less than that. If the Prime Minister knowingly attended a party, I can’t see how he can survive,” he told BBC News.

His comments echoed the leader of the Scottish Tories Douglas Ross who again warned that Johnson could not carry on in No 10 if he was found to have misled Parliament.

Will Boris Johnson resign?

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As has been proven multiple times in the last 24 months, Johnson’s ability to weather the storm of criticism and remain Prime Minister is enviable; it is often left to those beneath him to take the hit.

Take for instance Allegra Stratton, a former advisor to Boris Johnson who resigned from her post following footage leaked from December 2020 in which she was seen joking with colleagues about a party which took place inside No 10.

With the public mood turning increasingly angry, two snap polls found a majority now believed Johnson should stand down as Prime Minister.

A Savanta ComRes study found 66% of British adults thought he should quit, with 24% saying he should stay, while a YouGov survey for Sky News found 56% believed he should go, with 27% saying he should remain.

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