Stay tuned for coverage from 12:00. After a torrid month of self-inflicted wounds, this is a battle Cameron has to win.
12:01: And we’re off. Brown remembers the two soldiers killed in Afghanistan recently.
12:02: Question about £50,000 for the Prime Minister’s office. Brown says it’s the first he’s heard of it.
12:03: It’s Jacqui Smith with a plant about whose crime figures are less dodgy… I can’t yawn because she’s rather shrill.
12:04: Cameron opens with the revelations about Brown underfunding the Iraq war. Good start. Brown merely garbles on about year on year.
Cameron then lists the testimony against Brown’s defence. Brown can only respond with a joke about the Tories’s spending mistakes and highlights Tory cuts on Defence at the 2005 election.
Cameron says that Brown ignored the needs of soldiers until it became politcally expedient, and quotes a ream of Defence Chiefs who support him. Cameron is angry and rightly so – Brown’s Defence record is shaming – but I don’t think he’s scored a knockout punch here – there was something lacklustre about the delivery. He’ll get a second crack though.
FN: Brown’s line about 2002 Spending Review being the “best settlement for 20 years” is a classic Brownie – defence spending fell post Cold War. It was pretty much the first increase for 20 years – and by that time Blair was into his newly-discovered war-fighting mode with Sierra Leone, Kosovo etc. That Spending Review, if my memory serves, also ordered cancellation of forces families accommodation upgrades to help pay for Afghanistan. Interesting to see Brown trying to be the hard man on defence spending – as I blogged yesterday, the Tories spending plans (and their foolish pledge to protect the NHS) means they may end up transferring £4bn odd from the MoD to DFID. Brown knows how bad that will look, and is trying to turn up the pressure.
FN: Brown right to tease the Tories about changing policies. The thing is that they have changed the language and emphasis, not the substance, but it doesn’t seem that way to the public. James Forsyth has an excellent column about all this in tomorrows magazine
12:09: Here’s Clegg. It’s time to cut Trident – our troops are overstretched.
Brown reprises the ‘don’t talk Britain down’ line, and repeats the phrase, ‘Britain’s troops are properly equipped’ consistently. Wonder if the public thinks so?
12:13: Cameron back for round two. Why, after 13 years, has Brown suddenly found a fondness for PR.
Brown says that politics has changed – The Tories are for hereditary; Labour are for AV.
Cameron responds with confidence. The only person who inherited his post in this House is Brown. Darling’s cackling.
FN: Amazing the power of that Mrs Merton joke “what first attracted you to the millionaire Salman Rushdie”. Its entered the language now – and at least gave Cameron a joke.
12:17: Cameron wins the exchange by referring to Paddy Ashdown’s recollections of discussing AV/PR with Blair: “Paddy, I like it, I just can’t it get it past Gordon”. Parliament collapses. Brown is on the rack.
12:19: Edward Garnier asks why the Defence Chiefs wanted to resign over cuts. I hope Chilcot doesn’t allow Brown to get away with the line about increased spending – minimal increases ignored the fact Britain was fighting two wars.
12:21: Tory John Hayes asks about the government’s dreadful record on training and apprenticeships and a Labour follows up.
12:24: Crispin Blunt raises the 1998 Defence Spending review, which gave Brown a £1bn up front cut. Impressive co-ordinated attack on Defence by the Tory front and backbenches. I think Brown is at his most vulnerable here and it is a huge issue for the public.
VERDICT: After a slightly lacklustre start, Cameron won hands down and his customary punch was back. He succeeded in making Brown look shifty, opportunistic and detached from reality on Defence and Election reform. Brown is very vulnerable on Defence and the Tories delivered an extremely well co-ordinated attack – there were by my count a total of six questions on the subject and Brown’s dreadful record was laid bare. Clegg’s invisibility was an indication of Cameron’s complete dominance. The Defence Green paper follows, Defence will not go away for Brown.
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