BORIS Johnson was accused of disrespecting parliament after he sent a junior minister to update MPs on last week’s trip to India.
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, had tabled an urgent question in the Commons, calling on the Prime Minister to make a statement.
However, No 10 sent Foreign and Commonwealth minister Vicky Ford in his place.
She was greeted with shouts of “where is he” as she came to the despatch.
Ms Ford told MPs: “I thought we treated women with respect in this place.”
She added: “The Prime Minister visited New Delhi and Gujarat on the 21 to 22 April to deepen our comprehensive strategic partnership with India. The relationship between the UK and India is one of friends, partners and equals.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown the importance of greater and deeper partnerships between democracies. This visit enhanced our objectives on green growth, security and defence, as well (as) trade.”
Mr Blackford said: “There is a clear convention that Prime Ministers have a duty to update this House following their attendance at major summits or following significant visits. This convention has been respected and followed by all prime ministers in recent years, but like on so many other matters, the only exception to that rule is the current Prime Minister.
“Following his visit last week the Prime Minister should have come to this House and given an update, he has once again failed to do so. Instead he chose to go campaigning for his party in the local elections, though I suspect that won’t do them much good.
“This Prime Minister failing to come before this House is by no means a one off. He has failed to come before the House after the extraordinary Nato summit in March. There is a very clear pattern here. This is a Prime Minister who has no respect for the office he occupies and even less respect for this House.”
Meanwhile, Labour said Mr Johnson’s visit had been a wasted opportunity to challenge India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, over his neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told the Commons: “The Prime Minister should be here giving a statement. Instead, we have a Prime Minister whose moral authority is so sullied, whose political authority is so weak, he did not challenge India to change its official stance of neutrality on the appalling illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“India has a right to remain neutral but why would a UK Prime Minister waste such an opportunity to at least try and convince our Indian friends to join us in standing up to Putin’s aggression?
“It sends a worrying message that our Prime Minister lacks both the ambition and the ability to effectively used Britain’s diplomatic clout to influence others.”
Ms Ford replied: “As regards Ukraine, the British Prime Minister and Prime Minister Modi released a statement immediately after that meeting unequivocally condemning civilian deaths, reiterating the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for peaceful resolution of the conflict. He might like to take a look at that.”
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