PMQs: Theresa May’s word cloud – 10 January 2018

In the first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2018, Theresa May faced questions from MPs on the NHS, Brexit and the reshuffle. We present the word cloud for Theresa May’s answers at PMQs on 10 January 2018.

In what was an unusually short PMQs compared to normal, one of the key talking points from the session was when the PM was forced to backtrack after she began to remark on the absence of shadow education secretary Angela Rayner from Prime Minister’s Questions, only to be told that Rayner was undergoing medical treatment.

The NHS

As usual, Corbyn fired numerous statistics at May on the NHS, asking questions on winter preparedness, A&E waiting times, cancellation of operations, social care, funding and the role of private companies. May argued that the NHS had been better prepared than ever before for the winter pressures, but apologised to those who had planned operations cancelled to cope with the surge in demand.

Brexit

The SNP’s Ian Blackford focused on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill and how ending the supremacy of European law will affect the Scottish government’s powers. Blackford described the bill as ‘nothing more than a power grab from Scotland’. May claimed that the Government was seeking to improve the section of the bill in question, and that the ministers were ‘intensifying’ their discussions with Holyrood. Another SNP MP, Pete Wishart, asked the PM to rank her Brexit efforts on a scale of one to 10 – to which she replied saying that she is ‘getting on with the job’.

Reshuffle

Corbyn also made comments about Mr Hunt’s new job title, arguing that the new title ‘will not hide the fact that £6bn has been cut from social care under the Tories’. Separately, an early reference to the ‘housing secretary’ by the PM indicates a major shift in the priorities of the newly named Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.