Welcome to Coffee House’s live blog of PMQs. After Monday’s PBR, you can expect the economy to be the main topic of debate – with Cameron and Clegg trying to highlight the weasels and tax bombshells that Brown has in store for us. Things will kick off at 1200, so join us then.
1203: Here we go.
1204: First question from Sir Peter Tapsell: “Will the PM apologise to the public for wrecking the British economy?”
1205: Important point from Colin Burgon on money lenders targeting young people.
1206: Cameron now. “If the government doesn’t have a secret plan to raise VAT why did the Treasury Minister put his signature to it?” Brown talks about raises to VAT during the Tory governments in the 80s and 90s.
1208: Cameron says it’s “absolutely clear” that Lbour are planning a VAT bombshell. Says the Tories may put in FOI requests on the issue. Brown’s just denying all. “We’ve decided to cut VAT,” he says. Not sure whether Cameron’s attacks are quite hitting home yet.
1210: Better from Cameron now. He’s pushing the debt issue, referring to a “blackhole in the public finances”.
1211: Cameron: “There is nothing stimulating about what the Prime Minister is proposing.”
1212: Cameron brings up the £1 trillion debt figure.
1213: Brown responds with comparisons to the debt-GDP ratios of other country. Pity those other countries don’t have the same off-balance sheet debt that the UK has.
1213: Brown’s quite punchy here, if condescending: “I’m sorry I have to give him an economic lesson every week”. He keeps pushing the idea that the Tories would do nothing; quotes Andrew Lansley writing on the Tory blog that “this recession can be good for us”.
1214: Good line from Cameron. “This Prime Minister has given us the debt levels of Italy and the accounting practices of Enron”.
1216: Brown’s reducing this into a slanging match, in the worst possible sense. Constantly calling the Tories “the do-nothing party”; not asnwering the questions etc. Not pretty, but this could be the stuff that gets the news coverage later.
1218: Clegg leads on “fairness” in the PBR. Returns to the issue of tax cuts for low-income earners. I always think this is a fairly fruitful attack, particularly after the 10p tax debacle.
1220: Brown insists that the VAT cut will benefit low-income earners, and repeats the “Lib Dem cuts” line. “We are the party of fairness. A party calling for £20 billion of cuts in services is not a party of fairness.” Shameless.
1222: And planted question of the day goes to … Ian Davidson. He asks Brown whether he agrees that “the spoiled toffs [i.e. the Tories] just don’t get it.” Then follows it up by asking how Brown’s working with the international community. Also shameless.
1223: Brown says the G20 meeting in London will take place on 2 April.
1224: Brooks Newmark asks Brown if he can name one of the three countries with a higher deficit that the UK. Brown repsonds: “America”.
1226: Questions on council tax and defence spending.
1229: Simon Burns asks why, if the financial problems started in America, does Brown still retain Alan Greenspan as an adviser.
1231: Douglas Carswell: “The PM didn’t give us a straight answer before. Can he confirm that national debt till top £1 trillion.” Brown uses is as an opportunity to dish out the “Do-nothing party with a do-nothing leader” line. He seems to have shifted away from the “PR Man” attack on Cameron, on to this “do-nothing” theme.
1232: More from Brown on what he calls the “do nothing” theme. He tries to again quote Andrew Lansley, and is stopped by the Speaker.
1233: That’s it.
VERDICT: A strange PMQs. Cameron and Clegg launched the right attacks, but Brown was able to fend them all off with sheer bluster. “We’ve set out the figures in the PBR,” “We’ve cut VAT,” and “We’re the party of fairness,” were his stock responses to questions on national debt, tax and low-income earners, respectively. It was disingenuous, but it may just have got him through what could have been a tricky PMQs.
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