Who won:

Conor Ryan: I’m not sure why Gordon Brown wasn’t there for PMQs today – surely the schedule for the South African president’s visit could have allowed PMQs? On the substance, Harriet Harman missed the target against a fluent William Hague, showing a lack of economic understanding, a constant tendency to accord government jobs to shadow ministers and a subsequent failure to score points on Lord Ashcroft. She needed wit to do so effectively; instead she was sometimes shrill and appeared poorly prepared. Harman has handled PMQs much better in the past: today she was distinctly off-form, and let Hague win with a relatively low-key set of questions and a few passing jokes.

Rupa Huq: I thought that Harman had a good one. The whole exchange was dominated by Ashcroft which is not what the Tories wanted it to be about. She pointed out that the Tories are arrogant, backed up by Bercow who had to continually call order. She even called on Ashcroft or Hague to resign. Hague on helicopter budget cuts – we’ve increased defence spending while the Tories want to reduce it.

I felt sorry for Vince Cable. He made an interesting parallel linking Zuma’s polygamy to the married tax allowances and pointed how Ashcroft avoided £100 million of tax and how he “owes it all to William”. However it not easy to try and hear everything he was saying as the Tories barracked the name of, I presume, a Lib Dem donor at him.

Rachel Reeves: The Conservatives were behaving extremely arrogantly today. Harriet Harman referring to Hague as Foreign Secretary didn’t help, but the Tories need to avoid showing complacency, and indeed, complacency isn’t really justified right now given the improving polls for Labour.

Harriet Harman’s mistake on answering a question about the national debt/bonds with some facts about sterling made her line of “not taking lessons on economics from the shadow chancellor” less reasonable which was a shame. But, given that the election will be fought on the economy we need to ensure that all members of the government can answer questions on the economy – including on debt, sterling, taxation and growth accurately and convincingly. We have a good story to tell, but need to be on top. Harman did do better on linking reducing the national debt with taxation, and specifically about Lord Ashcroft’s failure to pay British taxes. That was her best attack on the deplorable Lord Ashcroft’s tax arrangements.

Best backbencher

CR: Phyllis Starkey’s question about remembering Alan Turing at Bletchley Park was well made.

RH: Andy Reed for his pharma jobs question – Harriet on form today. But Eleanor Laing – asking about manufacturing – the cheek of it!

Best comment/joke

CR: Vince Cable had the strangest link, trying to work Zuma’s wives into a point about the married man’s tax allowance, but he managed to get a good sharp question in about Lord Ashcroft and the taxman. Harman just about managed to use the opportunity to score against the Tories, drawing attention to Ashcroft’s praise for Hague in his book.

RH: Hague did have the witticism “she does not recognise marriage in the tax system – she sure does in the political system” on Jack Dromey. Another memorable one was “the question is not one man in this house it one man in the House of Lords.” Another amusing exchange won by Harman came with Bob “two jobs” Neil declaring “I must have dropped off,” to which the Leader of the House answered: “I thought he dropped off years ago”.

RR: Vince Cable’s remarks on President Zuma’s wives was not very diplomatic but was very funny. It also gave Harriet Harman an excellent chance to highlight the unfair nature of the Tories married tax allowance – especially its impact on children in the poorest families who will miss out financially and who risk being stigmatised by a tax code that makes moral judgements on families. 

Michael Foot’s passing

CR: The sad news that Michael Foot has died provided a tragic postscript to PMQs. Michael Foot was a great journalist and writer and a fine Labour statesman, whose achievements before he became Labour leader were outstanding.

RH: Wise backbencher Gerald Kaufman kebabed the Tories over the Falklands. Sad though to hear the news that Michael Foot, the leader whose manifesto Kaufman made his famous “longest suicide note in history” remark about, has passed away.

RR: The news that Michael Foot has died is extremely sad. I am not sure what he would make of PMQs and the increasingly rombustuous nature of PMQs today, but he would have loathed the policy and direction of the Conservatives under David Cameron, and would also recognise the increasing similarity of Thatcher and Cameron’s economic and social policies.

Photo: UK Parliament 2008