VERDICT: Woah. If you ever needed a PMQs to brush away the last morsels of festive cheer, then this was it. Every question and answer came laced with some sideswipe or other, and it made for a scrappy exchange between the two party leaders. Both struck blows against each other, but both were also guilty of errors and mis-steps. Miliband squandered an easy attack on bankers’ bonuses, even allowing Cameron to turn it back against Labour. While, for his part, the Prime Minister was so relentlessly personal that it came across as unstatesmanlike. I don’t think either one really emerged victorious, or well, to be honest. It was simply unedifiying stuff.
1230: And that’s the end of the first PMQs of 2011 – and what a heated one it was, too. My verdict shortly.
1226: There you go. Cameron says that the union reforms implemented in the 1980s are “working well” – but he’s happy to “look at” some of ideas for curbing union
militancy that the Mayor of London, among others, has proposed. Boris even gets a namecheck.
1223: If you’re looking for some light amid the heat, it’s mildly noteworthy that Cameron is calling on councils to do more to cut costs. This is one of the main Tory themes of 2011, so far, and highlights the growing hostility between the coalition and local authorities, over everything from school reforms to spending cuts.
1222: The Tory MP Anne McIntosh asks whether Cameron will consider a fuel duty rebate for those living in rural areas. I suspect this question represents some unease on the blue benches about rising prices and, indeed, the VAT hike.
1219: Proceedings have calmed down a little now, but there are still some flashpoints. Cameron dismisses the SNP’s Angus Robertson by referencing Thatcher: “Frit!”
1215: Backbench questions now, and the first features an attempt to resurrect the “Son of Thatcher” meme from last year. In his questions, Ed Miliband also reheated the
“Planet Cameron” jibe that he used last month.
1213: Miliband is flapping a little now, after an efficient start. He claims that Cameron has admitted to not doing anything on the banks. The PM swipes back that Labour has “a shadow
chancellor who can’t count, and a Labour leader that doesn’t count”. A nice line, but this PMQs has been a bit too personal to my ears. Tories clearly feel that Johnson is a weakness, worth
exploiting.
1210: Miliband has just handed Cameron an opening. “You’ve had eight months to deal with the banks,” he starts – and the Tory benches roar immediately. What about Labour? Didn’t
they have 13 years? Cameron seizes on that point ruthlessly, pointing out that Labour “even knighted Fred Goodwin for … services to banking.” Far more heat than light, today.
1209: And so it continues. Cameron says that Miliband needs the numbers “explaining” to him, and adopts a schoolmasterly tone. The specific issue is one we’ve heard a
great deal about this week: whether Labour’s bonus tax earned as much as Labour claimed it did.
1207: Ooh, it’s getting personal – and quick. When Miliband pushes Cameron on “cuts” to bank taxes, the PM responds that “I know the shadow chancellor does know the
numbers.” Cameron takes it even further, referring to Miliband and Johnson as “Wallace and Gromit”. Not sure that’s suitably statesmanlike from him.
1205: Sarcastic first question from Ed Miliband. He quotes Cameron saying that he wanted bankers’ cash bonuses to be restricted to £2,000 – “how are you getting on with that
policy?” Cameron refers, once again, to the deficit, and adds that the contracts that Labour signed with the banks have stayed the coalition’s hand now.
1203: The first question sets the tone of Labour’s attack throughout this session, I suspect: why did Cameron “break” his manifesto commitments on VAT and on tackling bankers’ bonuses. Cameron responds in his usual manner: we had to deal with the deficit that Labour left behind. As it was before Christmas, so it is after.
1200: A prompt start. David Cameron begins by paying condolences to fallen troops and their families. He also adds word of sympathy for the Australian people, beset by floods.
A quick preview from James Forsyth: Today marks the resumption of the Cameron-Miliband PMQs conflict. There are a fair few topics for Miliband to go on today but I suspect, and this is just a hunch, that he’ll go on bankers bonuses an issue where Cameron may be right but is on the wrong side of public opinion. As Ben Brogan reported the other day, George Osborne thinks that the drop in the coalition’s poll rating is because the bankers’ unpopularity is rubbing off on the coalition. The issue also has the benefit of highlighting an area where the Lib Dems have delivered far less than they suggested that they would.
Stay tuned for live coverage from 1200.
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