It was George Osborne v Angela Eagle at PMQs today, with David Cameron at the G7 in Japan. Eagle, who is a far better despatch box performer than Jeremy Corbyn, started off by contrasting Osborne’s handling of Google’s tax affairs with the French authorities raiding the company’s Paris office. She then went on to do what Jeremy Corbyn won’t, or can’t do, exploiting Tory divisions over the EU referendum. She asked Osborne if he agreed with Priti Patel or Len McCluskey on the EU and workers’ rights.
But after this Eagle lost her way, her questions turned into mini-speeches and Osborne batted them away with increasing ease. By the end of their exchanges, the Chancellor had the upper hand.
Osborne then hand to deal with a series of blue on blue attacks from Brexit backing Tory backbenchers. Most of these failed to hit home and Osborne kept his responses as short as possible. Bernard Jenkin asked Osborne if he was happy for the government to break the law in this referendum, saying it would be illegal for pro-Remain material to stay on government websites during the purdah period that starts later this week. Osborne said the government would abide by the law, but appeared to indicate that he thought it was legal for material to stay on government sites. I suspect that this matter will end up being settled in the courts.
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