PMQs as-it-happened
11:27 – All the talk is of Leveson, but Ed Miliband may be tempted to plant his flag on Iain Duncan Smith's work scheme. The much touted flagship policy has a success rate of 3.53% – lower even than my sport day success rate in school. That's a full two percentage points below what it would be if the scheme did not exist, so it's quite possible it's making matter worse. The temptation to focus on it will be hard for Miliband to ignore. But then there's Leveson: possibly the greatest challenge the prime minister has faced. He's got the press and many Tory Mps on one side and Clegg, Miliband and the rest of his Tory MPs on the other. Impossible. The trouble is there's nowhere to go with it. Cameron won't read the report until immediately after PMQs. He will simply say that we have to wait until we've all read it (with considerable justification). There's just not enough material there. The third option is Miliband's insistence that 8,000 millionaires are about to become £107,000 better off because of government tax changes. I don't know how that number works, I don't know where they got it from, I have no idea if it stands up. They didn't bother explaining it in the lines given out to media so I assumed it was nonsense and thought about it no more. Kickoff is at 12:00pm. The usual caveats apply: There will be typos aplenty and some of what I write may be unfounded, unkind and shallow.
11:51 – Stephen Crabb (Welsh Office minister, formative experiences in rubgy changing rooms) has grown a Movember effort even worse than that of my colleagues. Will someone rid us of this tedious charity horror? Anyway, Welsh questions are winding down, although frankly they weren't that excitement at their height.
11:54 – "The economy is our top priority," Crabb says. He's a controversial one. Very off-message.
11:57 – David Jones (Welsh secretary) sounds like the British villain in an eighties Hollywood movie. He looks entirely uninterested to be there and is communicating his displeasure via boredom and exasperation.
11:59 – Ah yes, floods. Being part of the London-centric media I entirely forgot about floods. That might well come up. Kick off should be any second now.
12:00 – A Labour MP behind Ed Miliband is passing out Aids awareness ribbons to frontbenchers.
12:02 – "This is now immensely disorderly," Bercow shouts.
12:03 – And we're off. Cameron starts by expressing sympathy for the victims of the flooding.
12:04 – Question one is on Leveson. Henry Smith (Con, opaque) asks if Cameron agrees the victims of phone-hacking should be uppermost in our minds. "The status quo needs updating." Cameron agrees. Well no-one wouldn't. He says Leveson was set up because of a failed regulatory system. "We should try to work across party lines on this issue. What matters most is we end up with an independent regulatory system in which the public can have confidence." Independent means any effort at self-regulation seems to be off the table. Miliband associates himself with that and says he wants to work together.
12:05 – Miliband starts by asking about the work programme. How's it going? He asks. Cameron lists numbers and reminds MPs it is for the hardest cases – adults out of work over a year. On that basis it's the right programme. Miliband says in a while year out of every hundred just two got a job, a success rate of two per cent. "I don't know why the part-time chancellor is chuntering, he was telling off the work and pensions secretary at Cabinet yesterday for the failure of the programme. It's a historic first to invent a welfare to work programme where you're more likely to get a job if you're not on it." Cameron says he was wrong. The two per cent figure is inaccurate.
12:08 – Cameron says Labour left these people on the heap. He starts issuing optimistic sounding numbers on employment. Good pace from Cameron. He reminds Mps of Labour's "poisonous legacy". It's standard content, but delivered with a bit more spark than usual. "I wish for once he would answer the question," Miliband says. "Let's talk about the future jobs fund," Miliband continues. After rubbishing the fund for two year, a government document showed it had a newt benefit. "It helped a 120,000 young people into work. His programme only helped 3,00. They shout what does it cost? We can't afford to not have young people in work." Very good phase for Miliband.
12:11 – At yesterday's Cabinet "they were at each other like rats in a sack" Miliband says. He starts to pull ahead now, building up a head o00f steam. Cameron and IDS are practising their bemused look. The work programme is in dicative of the general employment failure. Cameron says the attack was absurd. "He worked in a government where the prime minister and chancellor couldn't even talk to each other." Cameron says Miliband refuses to take action against welfare. "They're against the benefit cap – they are officially the3 party of something for nothing." Big cheers from Tory benches. Miliband: "His welfare programme is failing because there isn't the work and his economic programme is failing. It is a government that is failing, a prime minister that is failing." Cameron interrupts and taps his watch. "Calm down, calm down," Miliband laughs. "He just can't keep his cool when he's losing the argument."
12:14 – Strong performances on both sides there, but Miliband pulled ahead towards the end, especially with his off-the-cuff comments when Cameron tried to interrupt him. Final score – Miliband: 3 Cameron: 2.
12:16 – Cameron is continuing to confidently answer questions. Perhaps he's enjoying these last few moments before he reads the Leveson report and potentially enters a world of political pain. Roger Williams (Lib Dem, just about still going) says the Commons voted for a ban on animals in circuses last year, but legislation is taking too long. he wants it this parliament. The regulations are changed, apparently, in advance of the legislation.
12:19 – "I very much enjoyed visiting his constituency, seeing the appalling damage done by the floods…" Cameron tells one MP. Um. That might not be the ideal to take Mr prime minister.
12:20 – Cameron is asked about 30% cuts to flood defences in the last two years – a potentially highly damaging charge. Cameron says the floods screated "biblical scenes". Cameron makes a convincing case for the contrary. Gregg McClymont (Lab, bank manager) wants answers on unemployment rises since the work programme was introduced. Cameron says he has a record they can build on. Liam Fox does his Leveson interjection. "We do not need to restrict the press, we need t focus o n redress when the press cross an unacceptable line." He wants everyone to have access to rules on libel – not just rich and famous. Interesting point. Cameron says Leveson is about having a regulatory system that means you don't need to wait for the legal system to slowly get into gear.
12:26 – Cameron is asked by Jeremy Corbyn (Lab, radical) wants Cameron t back a Palestinian state. Cameron obviously won't. He relies on the usual safety net – "talks without preconditions". "We can wish for all we want at the UN in the end you need direct talks between parties".
12:30 – A debate on Ugandan Asians who came to Britain to escape the country has been cancelled due to the Leveson debate, we learn. Cameron says he wants the debate "rescheduled as fast as possible". He adds: "I don't have control of the parliamentary timetable, unfortunately."
12:32 – Robert Halfon (Con, too stern for his health) is wearing the most appalling tie imaginable. Tom Harris (Labour, Doctor Who fan) said the Pm promised investment to tackle tax avidance. Actually HMRC is facing a cut in its budget. "Is the PM guilty of tax avoidance or tax evasion," he asks wittily. Cameron blusters in his response, depressingly relying on Labour's record rather than justifying his own. Phillip Davies, (Con, had his bottom handed to him by Lord Patten yesterday) speaks out against statutory regulation.
12:34 – OK, that's over now. It's been a bit of a nightmare for me I'm afraid, because my internet connection kept going down. So apologies for the slow coverage and the distracted writing. We'll do rather better next week I imagine, not least because one of my colleagues will be doing it. See you then.
