PMQs As-It-Happened
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11:10 – David Cameron and Gordon Brown square up again today after a series of three consecutive defeats for the Tory leader. Well, William Hague stepped in to be defeated on the second outing, but you know what I mean. Yesterday’s poll for politics.co.uk found Gordon Brown riding high on a wave of support for his management of the economic crisis. Similar polls across the media corroborate the results. George Osborne’s holiday drinks in Corfu failed to end his career, but they did succeed in making the Tories even weaker on the economy. Pictures of the shadow chancellor in Oxford sporting a posh waistcoat provided exactly the opposite image to the one Tory PR men are struggling to ram down the public’s throat, for instance. With so many PMQs hinging on the economy, and so many of them going Mr Brown’s way, Cameron may decide to opt for a different subject this week. Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross anyone? Let’s hope not.
11:57: The chamber is filling, frontbenchers are filing to their seats and we’re nearly ready to get underway. There’s been a fair amount of breaking news in the last hour – the assisted suicide clarification attempt has failed at the high court and Ross and Brand have been suspended from broadcasting by the BBC. We’re about to find out whether MPs care.
12:04: David Cameron steps up for his first question. Housing repossessions, unemployment, the economy – it’s another question about boom and bust! Having concentrated on this for the second half of his attacks last week, he returns to the same topic – earning the jeers of Labour backbenchers. Mr Brown brushes it away – “I’ve already told him” about his comments, he says.
12:06: The second question focuses on the prime minister’s fiscal rules. He quotes Mr Brown’s guarantees and asks whether they are now dead. The PM tells the opposition to “listen for a minute”. The cause of the crisis, he explains, is the private banking sector – “not with national governments”. “If he doesn’t understand that is the problem, he will not be able to come to a proper solution.” Mr Brown is smiling, happy – deeply comfortable with his position. “We have met our fiscal rules,” he says. “They broke the roof, we fixed it.”
12:08: Mr Cameron continues with his attack on the fiscal rules. He has clearly taken politics.co.uk‘s advice not to go after the former chancellor generally on the economy. The former chancellor doesn’t seem bothered in the least. “When will they get their act together and show they have one coherent policy?” he asks.
12:10: The Tory leader makes a decent point about the fiscal rules being in some sort of “suspended animation”, but the impact is ruined by a Brown attack on the headlines in the last few days. Mr Cameron, however, won’t let go. He returns to a Brown quote from his Labour party conference speech, in which Brown says “you cannot spend your way out of a recession”. Mr Cameron asks whether the PM is planning a “spending splurge”. But Mr Brown’s eyebrow is well and truly raised. He asks whether Mr Cameron supports John Maynard Keynes or not and fires back a quote of his – George Osborne saying increasing borrowing is both a good thing and not a good thing.
12:12: “He hasn’t got a plan, he’s just got a giant overdraft,” is the next soundbite from Mr Cameron, who finishes with another boom and bust ploy. The PM says the government will do the right thing – and insists borrowing is the right tactic to see Britain through the current crisis. “This party has no policy – they are not even prepared for opposition,” he finishes. If PMQs is all about rattling the prime minister, Mr Cameron has miserably failed.
12:14: Perhaps Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg can do better. He suggests poorly spent public money should be diverted to help out the government. “Isn’t it time he rethinks his plans?” he asks. Mr Brown pours scorn on the figures provided by Mr Clegg and says the Lib Dems’ plans to cut spending by £20 billion plans is the wrong solution. Mr Clegg is unimpressed, highlighting the difference between redirecting and cutting public money. It’s a huge inaccuracy by Mr Brown to describe the Lib Dems’ policy in this way.
12:16: After a planted question about regeneration funding, which allows Mr Brown to back the raised education leaving age to 18, Mr Brown is asked a question about parliament’s low number of sitting days scheduled for next year. The PM says the House of Commons doing its business efficiently is nothing to complain about.
12:19: Questions on Icelandic bank iSave and black and Asian recruitment to the Metropolitan police are followed by Linda Gilroy’s question on equipment for troops serving in Afghanistan. Mr Brown announces the planned investment of £700 million for new vehicles for the armed forces. Seven hundred new vehicles are to be bought. “This will mean the armed forces have the best practical protection for the work they do,” he says.
12:20: Liberal Democrat Paul Holmes calls for more funding for Derbyshire police, prompting Mr Brown to generalise about overall increases in police numbers. He repeats his jibe about the £20 billion of ‘cuts’ pledged by the Lib Dems.
12:21: A question pops up about a windfall tax on energy companies – but this is a little late in the day, or the year more accurately. The PM brushes off the comments but attacks the Tories’ fuel duty stabiliser, pointing out prices would now be going up if it were governing the market.
12:23: Would the prime minister resign if Britain had to go to the IMF for a bailout? That’s a decent question which wakes MPs up. Mr Brown points to 1992. “That is the moment they should be remembering,” he rumbles.
12:26: On Northern Ireland, Mr Brown says he wants to finish off devolution as quickly as possible. And he continues his jibes in response to a lengthy question about climate change, which gets several backbenchers grumbling. Mr Brown jumps on the noise: “I thought climate change was an issue that every side of the house wanted to take action,” he says, staring out defiantly at them. He’s not far off being outright smug at the moment.
12:28: The British pig industry is next on the list. Thank goodness there’s only a few more minutes to go. It turns out 76 per cent of bacon products do not come from quality pork standard suppliers. Can this be accepted? Can this be borne? Mr Brown keeps his comment safe: “Everybody knows British bacon is best.”
12:29: The office is now deep in debate about whether British bacon is, in fact, best. In the Commons, small business representatives struggling to get loans from banks are raising concern. “This is the central issue that has got to be dealt with in the next few days,” the prime minister replies. He hopes to see the resumption of lending by the banks, pledging to look at “other instruments” by which banks can give money to small businesses to help their cash flow.
12:31: After a bit of prevarication from Mr Brown over post offices he is pressed with a supportive question about safeguarding homes. Mr Brown says the judiciary has been told repossession is the last resort, not the first resort. “They may shout from the other side, but they’ve got no policies.” And that is that, with the prime minister continuing to grow in confidence every week. Time for lunch – let’s hope bacon’s on the menu.
