Rishi Sunak branded ‘weak’ as he misses highest percentage of PMQs of any prime minister
Rishi Sunak has missed the largest percentage of Prime Minister’s Questions of any inhabitant of Number 10, figures from the House of Commons Library and research by Sky News shows.
Ahead of Wednesday’s head-to-head, the PM had already skipped 17% of the sessions, which see opposition leaders and backbench MPs scrutinising the activity of the leader and their government.
But that number will rise to 19% – almost one fifth – having missed today’s session to attend a service for the NHS’s birthday, and with a plan to miss next week’s to go to a NATO summit.
The prime ministers closest to missing that percentage were Tory leader Sir John Major and Labour’s Gordon Brown, who were absent for 12% of their sessions.
Politics live: Rishi Sunak accused of behaving like ‘stroppy schoolboy’
For two of the six PMQs Mr Sunak either missed or is set to miss, he was covered for by the then-deputy prime minister Dominic Raab before his resignation over bullying allegations.
The other four have been, or will be, filled by the new deputy PM Oliver Dowden, while Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner is set to ask questions at all six.
Number of PMQs missed by prime ministers by percentage
It is tradition that if the prime minister cannot attend, the leader of the opposition doesn’t ask the questions either, and hands the reins to his or her deputy as well.
Prime ministers are allowed to skip the weekly event if they have other pressing commitments.
But the Liberal Democrats claimed it was another sign of “weakness” from Mr Sunak.
The party’s chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “A year ago today, Sunak resigned from Boris Johnson’s government because he claimed standards like competence and integrity were worth fighting for.
“Now he’s too weak to vote to condemn Johnson’s partygate lies and too scared to even turn up to PMQs.”
She added: “Rishi Sunak has thrown in the towel while the country suffers from endless Conservative sleaze and scandal.
“Families facing soaring mortgages and rents or struggling to get a GP appointment deserve better than a prime minister who won’t even turn up for the day job.”
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‘Liar, lettuce – what is Sunak?’
Labour’s shadow leader of the Commons, Thangam Debbonaire, told Sky News: “Rishi Sunak’s record of ducking scrutiny shows he is running scared.
“He’s too weak to defend his failure to bring down the cost of living for working people who, under his watch, have been hit by the Tory mortgage penalty and soaring rents.
“A credible prime minister would show some leadership, accept the need for scrutiny and answer questions from MPs on behalf of the people we represent.”
Mr Sunak’s “respect for parliament” was also brought into question by senior Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant during the PM’s appearance in front of the Liaison Committee on Tuesday.
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‘You haven’t read the report?’
In the terse exchange, Sir Chris also questioned the PM’s absence from the two standards votes on Owen Patterson – who was found to have broken lobbying rules – and Boris Johnson, who was found to have lied to parliament.
“For two rule-breaking moments you chose not to be in parliament but yesterday you opined on the rules of cricket,” Sir Chris said.
Mr Sunak said: “I’m very happy to talk about the rules of cricket, as you mentioned”, before Sir Chris replied: “But not about rule-breaking in parliament.”
The PM defended the two upcoming absences from the Commons, telling the Labour MP: “Your view is that I should not be attending the NHS celebration, or the King’s coronation celebration in Scotland or indeed the NATO summit?
“That’s a perfectly reasonable point of view, but it’s worth pointing out the leader of the opposition [Sir Keir Starmer] also will be speaking at the NHS church service on Wednesday.”
Read more:
PM was skewered at Liaison Committee
Is Rishi Sunak ‘uninterested’ in the environment?
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Ex-minister defends Sunak missing PMQs
Former cabinet minister Robert Buckland defended Mr Sunak, telling Sky News’ Kay Burley: “I really think missing two Prime Minister’s Questions out of many, many, in a year is hardly skipping his responsibility to answer for his actions.
“He is accountable daily through the media and through the glare of the House of Commons, and I think the British system means prime ministers are among the moist accountable in the world.”
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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