Wednesday's distressing scenes during Prime Minister’s Questions are a wake-up call for all of us who care about politics.

As the Chancellor sat beside the Prime Minister, clearly in tears, the Leader of the Opposition tore into her, referring to her as ‘toast’ and a ‘human shield’, jeering, “she looks absolutely miserable”. 

This was not robust debate, nor was it banter, it was calculated humiliation on the floor of the House of Commons, watched by millions across the country.

It raises a fundamental question about the way we do politics: 

Why are jeering, booing and shouting allowed on the floor of the House of Commons at all? 

PMQ’s doesn’t just humiliate participants—it models an aggressive, toxic, and dysfunctional form of leadership at a time when trust in politics is already dangerously low.

When MPs act like this, it sends a poisonous message: that personal abuse is acceptable, that emotional pain is a weapon, and that empathy has no place in politics.

We are outraged. And we need you to be too.

Compassion in Politics wants PMQ’s to be scrapped. It brings politics into disrepute and has no place in a modern, functional democracy.

That’s why we’re calling on the Speaker of the House, Lindsay Hoyle, to scrap the archaic toxic tradition and replace it  with a respectful modern system of accountability. It’s not rocket science, no other workplace allows such behaviour and Parliament shouldn’t either. 

We’ve drafted a letter demanding a clear commitment that bullying like this will not be tolerated again.

But we can’t do this without your voice.

Please add your name now to our letter to Lindsay Hoyle, demanding he holds MPs to the highest standards of decency. 

We’ve already met with the Speaker but he doesn’t get it. He says the behaviour at PMQ’s is just the normal rough and tumble of political life. 

This view shows how dangerously out of touch those in power can be. We need a Parliament fit for the 21st Century, not one where bullying is portrayed as banter and point-scoring as an end in itself.

Adding your name will send a powerful message that bullying in the Commons is intolerable — and that our politicians must act with kindness, empathy, and humanity.

Sign it here.

Political debate can and should be passionate — but it must never come at the cost of human dignity. Politicians have our lives in their hands. When we let MPs humiliate one another on the national stage, we all lose..

Thank you for standing with us in demanding a kinder, more respectful Parliament.