Parliament has been taken over by zombies – someone needs to get a grip . hyn

International tourists covet a ticket to Prime Minister’s Questions, but anyone who sat in the public gallery and watched the Wednesday lunchtime spectacle must have asked: What has happened to this country? If they crossed the Atlantic hoping to hear one-liners they will chortle at for the rest of their lives, they were in for a major disappointment. In fact, they might even worry that a Parliament once famed for its passion and even pizzazz has been taken over by zombies.

The sovereign’s mace was in its usual position but the overwhelming sense was that real power was elsewhere. It is no longer on the Government front bench but wherever Andy Burnham is choosing his new cabinet and plotting his first 100 days as prime minister.

Sir Keir Starmer was not in the chamber as he was at the NATO summit in one of his last acts as Prime Minister. There is a huge irony here. If he had not lost the confidence of his defence secretary, there is a sliver of a chance he might have clung onto power.

John Healey, the former MoD boss, the man who brought down the house of Starmer when he quit over defence funding, didn’t take a seat on the Commons benches. Instead, he stood at the door to the chamber, casting his gaze at Cabinet ministers, many of whom will soon be moving out of their Whitehall offices.

It fell to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy to play Starmer’s substitute. He is a man who knows how to deliver a blazing speech, but he has the air of a minister whose batteries need a recharge.

Kemi Badenoch did not deign to face him but instead gave the task to Sir James Cleverly, her former leadership rival.

Mr Lammy couldn’t resist quipping that he could be doing this job every week if “he was better with numbers” – a reference to how Sir James didn’t make it to the final two in the Tory leadership race. But this wasn’t a PMQs where zingers flew around the chamber. The mood was downbeat.

Sir James pilloried the Justice Secretary for an early release scheme that he says has led to 50,000 prisoners being released early in just two years. He challenged Mr Lammy to apologise to the victims of rapists, sexual predators and paedophiles.

David Lammy could probably think of 5,000 things he would rather be doing than answering questions on this miserable topic. Things have got to a bad state in a country when a Government minister has to be urged to say not one rapist or paedophile will be released early later this year.

This could be his last Commons outing as deputy PM. Behind him sat Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader who is a champion of Mr Burnham.

Change is coming to the Labour benches, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves looked grim. The fact that Labour is marking its second anniversary in power with a leadership election is a recognition of just how badly things have gone.

The sense of real political action taking place far from Westminster was heightened by the absence of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. He is doubtless laying the groundwork for his by-election campaign in Clacton.

But Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper made a plea for his bid to trigger a by-election to be blocked while his finances are scrutinised.

Mr Lammy wants to use his remaining time in power to make a mark on history. He said the Hillsborough legislation to support the victims of disasters and their relatives is imminent.

And he announced that Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain, is being granted a posthumous conditional pardon. Family members sitting in the gallery were delighted.

It was a reminder that Government can do bold and important things that make a difference to people’s lives. But the tourists who filed out of Parliament back into heatwave London must have shaken their heads at the state of Britain’s democracy.

Nobody expects Mr Burnham to unlock a golden age. But this looks like a country where someone needs to get a grip.