House of CommonsSir Keir Starmer faces questions from MPs every Wednesday when the House is sittingIt is not a new complaint - but it is being made with increasing regularity and ferocity in the House of Commons.
Why doesn't the prime minister answer the question?
Each week at midday MPs gather on the green benches for prime minister's questions, with at least an expectation of answers about government policy.
But things go awry when Sir Keir Starmer reaches for the political strategy known as "the pivot", turning from the subject the questioner wants to focus on, to talk about No 10's chosen issue instead.
The tactic is infuriating to opposition parties, and many viewers and listeners at home.
BBC Radio 5 Live has obtained letters and emails to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, about conduct and behaviour during PMQs.
Of the 61 items of correspondence sent in January this year, the overwhelming majority were about Sir Keir's failure to answer questions - and Sir Linday's inability to do anything about it.
"During MPs question time," writes one voter, "the prime minister gets asked a question but he never answers it. It is always a deflection tactic. Why does Sir Lindsay Hoyle allow this to happen?"
Another tells Sir Lindsay: "You are not executing your duties AND responsibilities by allowing questions to be ignored and in its place putting his party's agenda before the house.
"If you are not going to adhere to the House's principles, stand down and take up something that more suits your talents such as knitting!"
The messages to the Speaker were released in response to a Freedom of Information request.
House of CommonsSir Lindsay Hoyle says it is not his job to judge the quality of answersOther comments include "can you please ensure the prime minister answers the question he is asked, otherwise it may be better to call it prime minster doesn't answer questions" and "this prime minister seems to never answer a question which makes a mockery of the proceedings which are supposed to hold the government to account for their actions".
One email to Sir Lindsay suggests a solution: "All the Speaker has to do at the end of PMQs one day is to say 'we the British people have had enough of this charade, which is an insult to parliamentary democracy our nation - I want you Sir Keir to return at say 4pm to make full and proper replies to the questions posed'."
Sir Lindsay insists that is not his job under the current rules of parliament.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has been so irritated by Sir Keir that on Wednesday she raised it at the despatch box: "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. Let us see if he can do better this week."
This was prompted by Badenoch asking six questions about whether the prime minister personally spoke to Peter Mandelson about his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before appointing him as UK ambassador to Washington.
In his answers, Sir Keir apologised for appointing Mandelson, before going on to refer in his answers to the war in Iran, a Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square, Christians performing the passion of Christ, Nato, Greenland and Tommy Robinson.
Sir Lindsay has been keen to stress that he is not the adjudicator on the quality of the answers given by government ministers, including the PM.
The Speaker told MPs this week: "I do not have responsibility for, or authority over, answers.
"It is incumbent on ministers to try to ensure that there is an answer, but it is not for me to judge whether the answer is correct. That would be politicising the Chair. If that is what the House wishes to do, it can by all means do that, but I have not got that power."
A spokeswoman for the Speaker's Office added that "deciding whether or not an answer was satisfactory would require a political assessment, and this could compromise the Speaker's impartiality".
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Some MPs have been studying Erskine May, the parliamentary rulebook, in particular paragraph 22.7 which states: "The Speaker's responsibility for questions is limited to their compliance with the rules of the House. Responsibility in other respects rests with the Member who proposes to ask the question, and responsibility for answers rests with Ministers."
There are no plans to change these rules.
Chris Ward, a government minister who has helped prepare Sir Keir for PMQs for many years, in opposition and in government, defended the PM's approach.
He told 5 Live: "In opposition, we were up against Boris Johnson – not the most forthcoming of people in answers, or always the most truthful. It was our challenge to always pin him in a way that he couldn't get away from it.
"And I'd say if you look at how Keir answers it, there's always an answer at the beginning where he gives a factual answer, but then he'll pivot… there's always a bit where you will answer it and then you'll give a rebuttal and then do an attack bit."
Ward conceded "there are more graceful ways you can do that".
I asked Downing Street about complaints from voters that the prime minister does not answer the questions. A No 10 spokesperson said: "The PM has got the big calls right on not joining the war, making tackling the cost of living a priority, and boosting our energy security as a nation.
"So of course he is going to contrast how he has taken the right decisions in Britain's interests with how Kemi Badenoch has got it wrong time and time again.
"While Keir Starmer has consistently shown calm, level-headed leadership, she has demonstrated why her appalling judgement makes her unfit to lead the country."
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Lindsay HoyleKeir Starmer
