Thurday’s marathon parliamentary sitting, aimed at clearing all outstanding debates and motions before the summer recess, was not the longest in history after all.

Even though debates had been timetabled up to 03.30 hours on Friday morning, the meeting actually broke up at 01.30 hours, after 16 hours 30 minutes of discussion. The longest parliamentary session on record was 19 hours, 23 minutes.
MPs will not meet again in parliament until the budget is presented on September 18, which will also be the last day for MPs who are not re-elected in the September 12 general election.