Burnham takes longer to answer at PMQs, BBC analysis finds
Andy Burnham has spent longer answering questions at Prime Minister's Questions than four of his recent predecessors, according to BBC analysis.
The prime minister, who had been in the job for three months, spoke for an average total of 22 minutes per session across his first three appearances. That was between three and six minutes more per session than the averages for Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson over three similar autumn sessions each.
Prime Minister's Questions is the weekly 30-minute session, starting at midday on Wednesdays when the Commons is sitting, in which MPs question the prime minister. The analysis, by Matt Chorley, also compared the length of individual answers.
Burnham averaged 51 seconds per answer. By comparison, Sunak averaged 39 seconds, Starmer 38 seconds, Johnson 35 seconds and Truss 33 seconds.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who chairs debates in the chamber, made repeated appeals for brevity during Burnham's first three sessions. A spokesman for the Speaker said the Speaker is always keen to get in as many backbenchers as possible for any question session. Backbenchers are MPs who hold no ministerial or shadow ministerial post.
A senior source in Number 10, the prime minister's office, told the BBC that Burnham takes longer because he actually answers the questions.
Burnham sits in the Commons as the MP for Makerfield. The official Commons record, Hansard, shows that Prime Minister's Questions took place on 14 October 2026. That record lists Jerome Mayhew as the Conservative MP for Broadland and Fakenham.
