Who won?
David Cameron struggled today under assault over Europe by Ed Miliband’s harrying by Labour and SDLP MPs on the same subject throughout the half-hour. The prime minister did his best to deflect the attacks by referring regularly to the ‘national interest’ (helpfully still unspecified) and even by arguing that the other EU member states are similarly looking to revise their relationship with the EU. But he reached a flailing nadir when he cried ‘if you want to join the single currency, vote Labour!’, a claim wild in its distance from reality. For one who must have known this subject was coming it was surprising to see him so desperate.
Despite Cameron deriding the quality of Ed’s jokes, they were in fact pretty good, with the Labour leader’s opening line hitting home and prompting laughter when he asked whether Cameron was pleased that the Tories no longer waste their time ‘banging on about Europe’ as the prime minister has once warned against. Ed hammered home the line that Cameron had lost control of his party, and painted a picture of the absurd situation that Cameron appears to be leading us in with his long-awaited Europe speech this Friday: ‘Six months to wait for a speech that will create five years of uncertainty’. Cameron also dodged the question of whether he has given the green light to his cabinet ministers to campaign on different sides of the referendum campaign.
Best backbencher?
I would normally be loth to pick a Tory, but Douglas Carswell was right to press the PM on the extension of primaries, which have been promised in the coalition agreement. Labour should also press for funding, as promised, of 200 primaries as a way of opening politics up to voters.
Best question, answer, comment or joke?
York Labour MP Hugh Bayley’s question – Will the prime minister rule out an opt-out on EU law guaranteeing equal pay between the sexes that would otherwise hit millions of British women? – follows on from the Tory Fresh Start Group’s four-point manifesto just launched, which includes the ‘repatriation’ of all social and employment law. Cameron’s refusal to do so is disturbing, but all interested in the debate should take a close look at the group’s demands. Few would defend the monthly shuttle between Brussels and Strasbourg, but would the other three demands really find favour among the public if they were to, somehow, be agreed? Telling people to say goodbye to minimum annual leave and their workplace rights is not likely to be the biggest vote-winner in the world.
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Adam Harrison is editorial and website manager at Progress and tweets @AdamDKHarrison