It was gloves off time at PMQs today. With elections taking place across the UK tomorrow, David Cameron went for Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly. He kept attacking Corbyn for having referred to Hezbollah and Hamas as ‘friends’ and called on him to withdraw the remark. He argued that Sadiq Khan’s willingness to share platforms with extremists was one of the reasons why Labour had a problem with anti-Semitism. It was bare-knuckle politics, and a preview of how the Tories would try and monster Corbyn in any general election campaign.
Corbyn responded by complaining about the Tories ‘smearing’ Sadiq Khan and by claiming that Suliman Gani, the preacher at the centre of this platform controversy, was a Tory. Corbyn, though, played into Cameron’s hands by trying to turn the session into a local elections broadcast, allowing Cameron to respond in kind. Angus Robertson, though, asked about child refugees and got Cameron to say that the government would now let in some of the child refugees who came to Europe before the EU-Turkey deal.
Caroline Lucas attempted to catch Cameron out by asking him questions from the grammar tests that primary school children are having to sit. But Cameron wisely, and rightly, responded that the test were designed to ensure that our children are better educated than we were.
I suspect, though, that the moment that will do the round on social media this afternoon is Cameron being asked by the publicity hunting Leicester MP Keith Vaz whether Gary Lineker should present Match of the Day in his underpants. Cameron, in a moment that did little for the dignity of his office, opined that he thought Lineker should keep his promise to do so.
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