VERDICT: It was, comparatively, a quieter session than last week. Miliband was not as effective and missed the bus on the forestry u-turn. His attack on the government’s growth agenda was more spirited (Miliband is better with statistics than jokes). Even so, he concentrated on youth unemployment, which has been a long-term problem in Britain. Therefore, it doesn’t work as a critique of government policy. This is a very difficult time for the government and for Cameron personally; he will be relieved then to have emerged from PMQs largely unscathed. More worrying for Cameron, there was a hangover from last week’s 5 hostile Tory backbench questions, particularly on the issue of Europe. Dissent is in the air, which is why Theresa May’s statement on the fate of the sex offenders’ register after the Supreme Court’s human rights judgement, a backbench bugbear, is so important.
12:23: Tory backbencher Philip Davies raised the question of the Supreme Court’s decision that the sex offenders’ register contravenes the European Human Rights Convention. This sparks a flurry of questions on the European Union’s budget and the parliament’s attempts to impose regulation. To all of these, Cameron responds with salvos of parliamentary sovereignty and the promise of a British Bill of Rights. It’s a good call and a reminder of the Tory leadership’s eurosceptic instincts. But it’s hard to see how the government isn’t heading for a crash with parliament, the EU or the ECHR over these issues. Cameron can’t keep everyone happy.
12:18: Bernard Jenkin announces that his committee is conducting a review into the Big Society. Cameron looks like he fears the worst from this, but he makes a couple of interesting points: essentially, the BS concerns more than voluntarism, it’s about holding the government to account.
12:14: It’s noisy in the House after that spirited exchange, which Cameron probably won on points. After a brace of backbench questions on deregulation and the Olympic Games, Miliband devotes his two remaining questions to the forestry u-turn. ‘Surely he can see the irony? The man who made the tree the Tory party logo now wants to cut them down’.
Cameron straight-bats both questions, saying this was just a consultation and that further discussions are taking place to ensure that Labour’s mistakes (on rights of way, regulation and so forth) are not repeated. An excruciating period for Cameron, but Miliband’s insufficiently funny to exploit it to the full. You get the impression that Flashman, Blair and Hague would have made more of a similar opportunity to take the mick.
12:10: Miliband segues into internships, raising the embarrassing spectre of city internships being sold at £4,000 a pop at the Tory ball. Cameron responds by listing the roll of nepotent internships Miliband enjoyed, courtesy of his father’s friends.
12:08: Miliband majors on Cameron’s ‘betrayal of a whole generation of young people’. He attacks Cameron’s work programme and the decision to cut the educational maintenance allowance. Miliband produces a quote from a former Cameron aid saying that the EMA should not be cut.
Cameron responds, quoting the same advisor, that Labour did not wake up to the problem of youth unemployment when it was in government. He also defends the work programme as the largest such effort since the 30s.
12:04: Miliband is on his feet. He leads with one of his stiletto questions: inflation and unemployment (especially youth unemployment) is up, how’s the recovery going?
Cameron is swift to answer Miliband’s youth unemployment question: this is a long-term issue and one which demands reform. ‘That means,’ Cameron says, ‘a welfare system that doesn’t keep people out of work and an education system that doesn’t prepare young people for work.’
12:02: And we’re off, with a question from Labour backbencher Chris Mann. He asks a question about a case from his constituency where a care home is upping its fees by £400/week. Cameron responds strongly: the care budget has increased to £2bn.
11:55: Stay tuned for live coverage from 12pm.
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