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With Rishi Sunak in the US for meetings with President Biden, Oliver Dowden, his deputy prime minister, took questions from Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner at PMQs, who focused her attack on the COVID inquiry.

Wednesday 7 June 2023 14:00, UK

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MPs returned to parliament this week after recess amid some headache headlines for the government surrounding the COVID inquiry and Boris Johnson's WhatsApp messages when he was prime minister.

Meanwhile, immigration minister Robert Jenrick reckons many more migrant boats have been intercepted in the English Channel after "landmark deals" with France.

On the Sophy Ridge on Sunday podcast, hear interviews with Mr Jenrick and Labour's shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who's asked about the party's response to serious allegations involving Geraint Davies MP, who's been suspended under investigation.

On the podcast today, Daily Mirror's political editor John Stevens joins Sophy for analysis and discussion.

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Security guards at Heathrow airport are set to strike on almost every weekend of the summer.

Unite union said more than 2,000 of its members will walk out on 31 days over the summer, potentially throwing travellers' summer plans into disarray.

The strikes will coincide with the beginning of the school holidays and the August bank holiday.

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According to our political correspondent Joe Pike, even Oliver Dowden's ministerial colleagues are damning of his PMQs performance: "He's a nice guy but a technocrat and deathly dull," says one.

"It was a complete waste of everybody's time. But exactly what Number 10 and CCHQ will have wanted."

Gene Simmons said he witnessed "controlled chaos" during his "insane" visit to the Houses of Parliament to watch deputy Prime Minister's Questions.

The hard rocker, in the UK for the band's End Of The Road tour, was a guest of DUP MP Ian Paisley and received a private tour before making his first trip into the Commons chamber.

Simmons, speaking in central lobby, said: "What I just saw in there was controlled chaos. It was the clash of wills but respectful - the right honourable so and so, it was fascinating.

"In America, it's like the middle finger is a salute. I think Americans can take a big lesson in civility in how to make democracy actually work and still respect the other side."

He went on to say that "touching a piece of granite that's over 1,000 years old is insane".

"America is so young and has no sense of history, everything over there is just fast, immediate, instant gratification and there's no time to sit there and just gaze, I mean, look where you are - it's insane.

"We're standing on, in terms of democracy, hallowed ground."

As PMQs comes to an end our political correspondent Ali Fortescue has been giving her views on today's session.

She says Oliver Dowden seemed "calmer" than in his first PMQs a few weeks ago, and he made a few jokes at the expense of Angela Rayner.

"Angela Rayner went in hard on Oliver Dowden on the COVID inquiry today. She accused the government of blocking the inquiry that itself set up," she adds.

She continues that the deputy prime minister's responses were "cheeky at times", talking about Ms Rayner's AirPods and a lack of WhatsApp messages between her and Sir Keir Starmer.

Here's what Ali Fortescue had to say...

Ashley Dalton, the Labour MP for West Lancashire, asks about the attainment gap in schools and an admission it will take "a decade" to get back to pre-pandemic levels.

Oliver Dowden says the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had narrowed in both primary and secondary schools before the pandemic.

He says: "If she's that concerned about children's education, she should be calling on the education unions to call off their damaging strikes."

The government's failure to appoint an anticorruption champion is the next topic thanks to a question from Labour's Paula Barker.

She says the post has been vacant for a year and asks Oliver Dowden if he feels this increases or decreases the risk of corruption in government.

The deputy prime minister says he is working closely with the paymaster general to take "extensive steps" to crack down on fraud, and to make sure procurement is "transparent"

"We will be filling that vacancy very shortly," he adds.

Alexander Stafford, the MP for Rother Valley, noted earlier that KISS bassist Gene Simmons had been spotted in parliament today.

Our political correspondent Joe Pike has confirmed Simmons is watching Prime Minister's Questions from the under gallery (the seats to the side).

He's clearly hoping to be incognito dressed in all black - but we're not quite sure the reason for his appearance...

Labour's Nia Griffith stands to ask a question about immigration backlog hotels and what the government will do to speed up the process of returning people to safe countries.

Mr Dowden says the government will take "whatever action is necessary" to clear the backlog and "stop the boats".

The deputy PM points out that small boat arrivals to the UK are down 20% this year, and a deal brokered with France by Rishi Sunak earlier this year has prevented 33,000 illegal crossings.

"The legacy asylum backlog is now down 20%," he adds.

Considering his years of helping prime ministers to prepare for these encounters, Mr Dowden's performance is a little laboured (no pun intended).

He instinctively understands how to construct a witty parliamentary riposte to any question, but not quite how to deliver one.

Like Sir Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner is now using far shorter questions. This gives ministers little time to rest and think.

Perhaps surprisingly, neither Labour nor the SNP mentioned Boris Johnson's reported concerns that Mr Dowden was involved in referring further partygate allegations to the police.

It is an awkward rift that opposition parties might have been keen to exploit.