A particularly fractious PMQs today. Ed Miliband started by asking questions about Liam Fox which, frankly, seemed rather out of date given that Fox has already resigned. Cameron swatted them away fairly easy, mocking Miliband with the line “if you’re going to jump on a bandwagon make sure it is still moving”.
But when Miliband came back on the economy, Cameron was far less sure footed. The Labour leader had one of those great PMQs facts: despite the government having issued 22 press releases about the regional growth fund in the last 16 months only two firms have received any money for it. A visibly irritated Cameron then said that all Miliband “wants to do is talk down the economy” which drew hoots of derision from the Labour side. After this, Cameron couldn’t regain his usual command of the chamber for the rest of the session.
But perhaps the most significant moment of PMQs today came when Cameron was replying to a question about the backbench motion on a referendum on the European Union. Cameron implied that in the next parliament there would be opportunities both to repatriate powers and for a referendum. This seemed to inch the Tories closer to a position of promising renegotiation followed by a referendum which would, I expect, be enough to prevent a major rebellion next Thursday. Certainly, Downing Street does seem to be backing away from the confrontational talk of a three line whip against the motion that it was indulging in yesterday.
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