(AFP) – May 19, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday launched an online version of his weekly question-and-answer session in parliament, vowing to let the public grill him directly on YouTube.

Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) is a weekly institution in the lower House of Commons, where MPs get 30 minutes at noon every Wednesday to quiz him on any subject that takes their fancy.

The online version is seen as an attempt to counter charges that the Labour leader is behind the times, in particular compared to Conservative leader David Cameron, who has called Brown "an analogue Prime Minister in a digital age".

"I am here to answer your questions. Politicians get the chance in Prime Minister's Questions. I think it is time the public had a chance," Brown said in a clip posted on his Downing Street YouTube website.

Political observers use PMQs to take the temperature of the prime minister's fortunes -- which in Brown's case have been pretty depressing of late, amid record low poll ratings and a series of perceived blunders.

His predecessor Tony Blair famously described Brown as a heavyweight "clunking fist" but most commentators agree he has looked distinctly wobbly in recent dispatch box battles with the younger, more telegenic Cameron.

The Tory leader has made a splash with his Webcameron website, which gives Internet surfers an intimate view of his home life, including webcasting the Cameron family breakfast time.

Brown's online PMQs may not be as immediate as some websurfers are used to: the deadline for the first questions to be submitted is June 21, and Brown promises to deliver his answers "at some point soon".

• Ask the PM: http://www.youtube.com/downingst
• Webcameron: http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=webcameron.index.page

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