By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. There's no two ways about it, Ed Miliband had an easy target. The Coalition looks like it is spending time debating an issue of little relevance to the majority of the country. Not only that, but the Coalition is divided about it.
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The great Philip Cowley pointed out on Twitter this morning a weakness in my argument that David Cameron is in a worse situation than John Major: Mr Cameron, he said, has a majority four times the size of Mr Major's. (He might also have added that Ed Miliband is […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Today's PMQs was bound to be a lively affair – George Osborne's tax cut/non-tax-rise dominated affairs. It was a tricky issue for both sides: Tories naturally support tax cuts, but had been made to defend the fuel duty increase until yesterday, while Labour MPs know it will benefit their […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter With the Prime Minister in Mexico, and Nick Clegg also away, the Foreign Secretary William Hague was answering the questions – and Harriet Harman was standing in for Ed Miliband. We have had the William and Harriet Show before when the roles were reversed under Labour, but this is the […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Today's Prime Minister's Questions should have been an excitable affair: we hadn't had one for three weeks, and in the period since the last PMQs, there had been developments in Labour's current anti-Government campaign: the Leveson Inquiry. A lack of wit, a strange absence of the sort of tension that […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Today's PMQs was an unusual affair – it was much livelier towards the end than at the beginning. The Miliband-Cameron duel consisted of Miliband asking questions he knew Cameron would never engage with, and Cameron reading out lists of Government schemes. The first question came from Tory backbencher Karen Lumley, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter After recent troubles with issues like Leveson and the local elections, the Prime Minister was bound to have a difficult PMQs. However, the Prime Minister did have some positive unemployment figures to hit back with. The first question came from Tory backbencher Paul Maynard, which was on those unemployment figures. […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The Queen's Speech this morning meant there was no PMQs today, but, being a Wednesday, Members felt the need to turn the Loyal Address that follows the Speech into something resembling a slightly relaxed version of the usual weekly questioning session. The session started off with Nadhim Zahawi giving the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter PMQs was set to be one of the most difficult of David Cameron's time at Number 10 and Ed Miliband focused on both of the hot topics – the double dip recession and the question marks hanging over Jeremy Hunt. Ed Miliband dealt no big new blow as the Prime […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I usually wonder before PMQs what Miliband will choose to go on. But there was no mystery earlier today this morning about what his choice would be: the budget "omnishambles". Cameron's response wasn't so much to throw up chaff – a frequent gambit when under pressure – as to […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Prime Minister is visiting America this week, and so Nick Clegg was the Coalition's representative at PMQs. Predictably, it was a slightly different affair to the usual format – that is, some Tory backbenchers focused their attacks on Clegg rather than the Opposition, and Labour attacked the Coalition, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Today's PMQs was understandably reserved, as it began with the Prime Minister announcing the news that six soldiers are missing, believed dead, after an explosion hit an armoured vehicle – the biggest single loss of life in the war. Nick Boles (Grantham and Stamford) , who asked the first […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Leveson: Ed Miliband began by asking about Leveson. After last week's remarks about Leveson by Michael Gove – the Education Secretary had talked about the inquiry's "chilling" effect – Cameron agreed that no minister would or should prejudice the course of the hearings. The Prime Minister also said that it […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. In the lead up to today's PMQs, Mr Miliband had a number of possible attack lines, especially with last week's recess meaning the last session was a fortnight ago. Mr Miliband could have chosen Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms, or the controversy over the Government's workfare policies. Either way, he […]