It shouldn’t be left to people like Omar Salem to question Johnson – it should be the job of MPs like me

If it wasn't for Johnson's undemocratic prorogation, the prime minister would have been questioned intensely about cuts to the NHS by a raft of MPs in parliament. His avoidance of scrutiny is shocking

The prime minister ran into my friend Omar Salem this week during a publicity visit with a press pack to the hospital ward where Omar’s daughter was being treated. And then an almighty row kicked off. I care about Omar, and, though obviously I have never met her, by proxy I care about his tiny baby in a hospital ward.

Since most of us are born in the NHS and proud of it, we are wildly, if rationally, emotional about babies in NHS hospitals. When the care is brilliant we think that our health service that cradles us is a miracle. When it goes wrong we feel national shame. We get as angry as Omar did.

So seeing Omar’s anger at the prime minister about a lack of doctors and enough nurses – that burnt. Then I realised. It shouldn't be Omar - or any dad of a sick child - who should be shouting at Boris Johnson. It should be me. It should be the 649 members of the House of Commons whose job it is to hold him to account.

If parliament wasn’t prorogued and MPs had voted to cancel recess as was expected, the PM could have been questioned on the NHS by elected representatives from all parties in PMQs hours after his encounter with Omar.

And it is this, the issue of accountability, that the Supreme Court are currently deliberating over.

Lord Keen acting for the government in one of the Supreme Court prorogation cases argued that despite prorogation “the executive will be questioned and held to account by the public and media or indeed during a party political conference season”. That will not be the case though where the prime minister and other government ministers carry out staged press visits and give speeches without taking questions.

Channel News Fact check has reported that for the visit to the hospital where Boris met my friend Omar, the press had agreed to film but not ask any questions. John Humphreys on his recent retirement also lamented the failure of the prime minister to do in-depth interviews. This is not the way democracy should work. Holding the government to account clearly can’t be left only to the media.

Additionally, if it wasn’t for Brexit, we would in fact be engaged in the proper business of British politics: the concerns of tiny babies in NHS wards and their parents. This issue would be the subject of extended debate where it ought to be - the floor of the House of Commons.

I am proud of my friend Omar for what he did. I am proud to have campaigned alongside him. But I am not proud that British politics has come to this. MPs should be in parliament holding Boris Johnson to account. Omar's girl, my girl, all our girls and our kids deserve nothing less.

Alison McGovern is the Labour MP for Wirral South