Keir Starmer is making such a mockery of Prime Minister's Questions that there has been chatter about whether the Commons clash should be scrapped. The Labour leader is by no means the first premier to spend the 30 minute grilling avoiding answering the question, but he is the most blatant.

Without style, wit or panache, the PM ignores the question completely and simply goes on the attack. No attempt is made to even sound like he is trying to answer and he certainly does not inject any charm.

Theresa May's weekly joust with Jeremy Corbyn was hardly a joy to sit through, it often felt like an endurance test.

But both took it incredibly seriously in their own distinctive way. David Cameron had studied Tony Blair so closely that he understood how to look like he was responding directly without slipping up and saying something that would later cause him a headache, with one notable exception where he told a Labour MP to 'calm down dear' and became embroiled in a sexism row.

Gordon Brown would repeat every week (or at least if felt like it) that Labour was the party that introduced the minimum wage.

Boris Johnson brought his characteristic flair to proceedings that at least showed some effort had gone into presentation for the head to head.

But Starmer has turned PMQs into a farce and this week's session included an absolutely astonishing moment that should worry us all.

Even the least engaged voter in the land would be able to assess that Prime Minister's Questions is an opportunity to ask the Prime Minister questions.

It is all there, succinctly laid out, in the three word title.

Kemi Badenoch is clearly frustrated with Starmer's refusal to engage in the issues she raises.

The Conservative leader said: "I asked the Prime Minister six questions last week and he did not answer a single one. He has a duty to this House to answer the question."

She went on: "Let us see if he can do better this week. I will start with a simple one. Will the Prime Minister approve the licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaw gasfields in the North Sea?"

What happened next was an insult to voters. Instead of explaining the government's ludicrous policy on energy, the Prime Minister effectively told MPs 'it's nothing to do with me gov'.

Legally, it is a matter for Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, he declared.

Badenoch replied: "The Prime Minister says it is a matter for the Secretary of State-I thought that he was the Prime Minister. He loves to hide behind legal process every single time."

The exchange has, quite rightly, led to accusations that Miliband is the puppet master now, the real leader, pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

That is a major cause for concern. Red Ed failed to win over the electorate in 2015 with his socialist policies, but the lesson he learnt from that was not to head to the centre ground but to be more radical.

He told LBC that he was "not following the normal route" of becoming more right wing as you get older but was instead shifting further to the left.

"My critique of myself in 2015 is not that I was too radical, but that I was not radical enough," he added.

But back to what it shows about Starmer. The Prime Minister, the man at the top, supposedly shaping our country's future, openly admits that he is not in charge.

It's up to Miliband whether we drill the North Sea at the time of an international energy crisis.

He is simply a passive bystander. He's not even a competent middle manager in his own government.

In the same session, up popped Nigel Farage to ask about Labour's staggering failure to tackle small boat crossings.

But did the PM address the issue? Of course not. Reading from his notes, he attacked Reform UK's approach to running local councils.

Farage was seen mouthing that the response was "absolutely pointless" and stormed out of the chamber, followed by all of his MPs.

But Starmer's abuse of the system should not mean that PMQs is scrapped.

His failure to answer even basic questions shows voters exactly who he is, a man without a vision for this country who hides behind people and process.

That itself shows why Prime Minister's Questions is one of the most valuable democratic assets the country has.