Badenoch ally to question Angela Rayner at PMQs

There will be a prominent new face at Prime Minister’s Questions this week – the Conservative frontbencher Alex Burghart.

The shadow Northern Ireland Secretary will deputise for the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at the weekly question session.

With the prime minister at the G20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro, the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner will answer questions for the government.

Convention dictates that when the prime minister is away, the Conservatives also field a deputising figure.

Kemi Badenoch chose not to appoint a deputy when she assembled her frontbench team, so it wasn’t clear who would stand in for her.

It would have been just her third outing at PMQs, but now she will miss a week.

The Conservatives were formally notified today that the PM would be absent.

He is expected to return to the UK later on Wednesday.

Mr Burghart, who is also the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has been one of the team that have helped prepare Mrs Badenoch for her encounters with Sir Keir.

He will now have the chance to ask the questions himself.

The last time Sir Keir was absent on a Wednesday, Sir Oliver Dowden asked questions for the Conservatives, as it was before Kemi Badenoch replaced Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader.