Who won?

Hopi Sen: Draw. Ed Miliband had the best joke and had a strong line of questioning, but Cameron stuck to his guns, and by falling back on the ‘what would you cut?’ approach, managed to escape relatively unscathed.

Rayhan Haque: If body language was anything to go by you would think David Cameron had won today’s session. He seemed prepared, confident, and more patronising than usual. However, beyond appearances there was clearly only one winner: Ed Miliband. With widespread reports of discontent and potential rebellion on the coalition benches over housing benefit reforms, the leader of the opposition cross-examined the prime minister over his plans. The questions were firm and direct, and challenged Cameron to look at again at his proposals. The PM failed to provide any substantive answers and attempted to deflect the questions by challenging Ed over his economic plans. The whole point of PMQs is to grill the executive, as Ed wryly pointed out. Having failed to engage constructively in that process, Cameron resigned himself to defeat. The PM should enjoy the theatre of PMQs, but not disrespect it as the primary forum for scrutinising his actions and decisions.

Samuel Walker: Ed played it well to focus in on the housing benefit issue as an opener. This issue is not going the government’s way and the public doesn’t seem to be buying their arguments. Ed prosecuted the case well and seemed confident in his arguments and sure-footed on his ground.

David did a less than brilliant job of rebuffing him. For good reason, David wanted to stay with the issue of the good economic news of yesterday. The issue of housing benefit cuts won’t go away, and his atempts to rebuff them came across as deeply insensitive. Even when he managed to get back to his happy news, he sounded weirdly unenthusiastic. All in all, a feisty but unfocused performance.

I’d give this one to Ed.

Best backbencher?

HS: For Labour, Luciana Berger, who asked a concise and clever question on the video games industry. For the coalition, Lib Dem Bob Russell, who laid bare the tensions on the housing benefit issue

RH: You’ll rarely find any questions worthy of the definition coming from government benches. We are still yet to replace the cheerleading and parrot nature of inquisition from fellow parliamentary members of the government. Until we do so one will always have to look towards the opposition benches. In today’s session Emma Reynolds MP and Paul Goggins MP posed particularly strong questions, asking the PM about BSF cuts in their constituencies. Cameron was only able to waffle out a substandard reply with highly dubious assertions that the government will invest more in capital projects within schools than the Labour government did over 13 years.

SW: Quite a good showing from the backbenches today. David Blunkett is always a joy to watch and his forensic question about the unfairness of funding to Yorkshire was a precise and effective lob to the other side.

But for today, Sharon Hodgson’s passionate and articulate attack on cuts to the child trust fund and the health in pregnancy grants was a wowee moment. She sounded genuine, forceful and the rising tide of jeers from the other side shows she got under their skin. Well done her.

Best question, answer, comment or joke?

HS: Ed Miliband, for his ‘back on the fags’ line about Nick Clegg. Meaningless Westminster insideriness, certainly, but well timed, and funny.

RH: Without a doubt, this goes to Ed for his clever and witty putdown of Nick Clegg and his recently exposed ‘smoking problem’. For someone who has an innate inability to self-deprecate and never not look smug, it was enjoyable seeing a man who has previously bragged about the number of notches to his name, actually taken down a couple.

SW: On the Conservative side I would nominate Harriett Baldwin’s lilac on lilac jacket and scarf ensemble as a comment on awful taste, but it had to be Ed’s glum and glummer line on the Lib Dems. Quite amusing.

Hopi Sen, Rayhan Haque and Samuel Walker are, respectively, a Labour blogger, former Fabian society and David Miliband researcher and a former aide to the Australian prime minister