IT must be annoying for Boris Johnson when he has all his boasts, quips and zingers rehearsed and ready to go, only for his opponents to ask about a gravely serious topic he wasn’t expecting.

Keir Starmer wants to know why the UK is still selling arms to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a brutal assault on Yemen. He frames his question in terms of whether the PM agrees with US President Joe Biden that such sales should be suspended.

According to the Prime Minister the people of the UK can be “hugely proud” of what we’re doing to support the people of Yemen, What are we doing to support them? We're cutting aid to them by 50% while supplying weapons to those bombing them. The UN Secretary General says aid cuts are a “death sentence”, but almost £1 billion over five years sounds like a lot so Johnson simply repeats that figure over and over again while limply emphasising that the UK is “following guidance” on arms sales.

WATCH: Lesley Riddoch: Why we must pay attention as UK slashes aid to Yemen

However, it doesn’t take long before the mask slips, and he reveals his true thoughts on the matter. Referring to Starmer, he splutters: “He can’t even address a question on the issues of the hour! He could have asked anything about the coronavirus pandemic, instead he’s concentrated his questions entirely on the interests of the people of Yemen.” Clearly the threat of 400,000 under-fives dying from malnutrition isn't an "issue of the hour" to Johnson. It's more of a minor inconvenience.

He should have a word with some of his own MPs. As Starmer points out, some of them are very unhappy with the UK's response and would doubtless agree that the plight of Johnny Foreigner is worth discussing at PMQs.

Of course, we know what would have happened to any party leader who asked questions about the details of the impending Budget – they’d have been told to contain themselves, to get a grip, and to keep their wigs on.

Ian Blackford, too, is concerned about Yemen, and asks whether the Budget will – of course it will – confirm an overall reduction in UK foreign aid from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income at a time of global crisis, reflecting “another U-turn, another broken promise”. It’s not a question so much as a comment, or rather a verbal skelp. “Why is the Prime Minister breaking his own manifesto commitments, and why are his government breaking the promises they made to the world’s poorest?” thunders the SNP’s Westminster leader.

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Liam Fox didn’t have a real question either, instead dressing up a snide inference as an innocent enquiry. “Given the turmoil in Scottish politics”, he asked, would the PM confirm “that any civil servants that feel pressurised to behave inappropriately have a mechanism to seek redress beyond the ministers to whom they are immediately answerable?” Who on earth could he be referring to? It’s impossible to say. Perhaps next he will ask whether there are processes in place to deal with – theoretically speaking – Nicola Sturgeon kicking a puppy, or claiming a large dustpan and heavy rug on parliamentary expenses.

Patrick Grady has clearly been reading his National, as he’d like Johnson to explain why his party’s Scottish branch are putting out leaflets saying that a vote for the Tories is a vote to stop an independence referendum, given the PM's repeated assertion that we won’t be getting one regardless of how the Holyrood election goes. Bonus points to him for playing the PM at his own game by repeatedly referring to the “British nationalist" Tories.

Surprisingly, Johnson doesn’t take the opportunity to try scoring points in relation to the ongoing inquiry into the handling of harassment allegations. Mortifying for the Scottish Tories that they have stooped even lower than their boss with their premature squealing for Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation before she had even been sworn in. What an absolute beamer.