In the chamber today battlelines were drawn ahead of next week’s county polls as Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians in particular used the platform of PMQs to sally forth for their local parties. Colchester’s Lib Dem MP Bob Russell called on the prime minister to back an independent inquiry into spending decisions taken by Essex Conservative councillors, including its leader. Carlisle’s Tory MP John Stevenson made a similar intervention over a payoff to Cumbria council’s chief executive. More members made their own local pitches and throughout the prime minister used the opportunity to remind voters to vote Conservative.
Labour MPs weighed valiantly in over welfare reform, the scandal of food banks and the ‘tax cut for millionaires’ but their Tory counterparts similarly dug in over the need to ‘make work pay’ and not to relent over benefit ‘reform’. The non-appointment of Tanni Grey-Thompson to the chair of Sport England cropped up twice, mostly as Cameron dodged Huw Irranca-Davies’ question over whether he was consulted over her blocking, Barry Gardiner following up towards the end of the session to ask if the ‘shade of red’ the prime minister turned was in place of the answer ‘yes’.
Who won?
Ed gave all six of his questions over to the NHS, citing a ‘crisis in A&E’, as revealed by new figures showing the sharp rise in the numbers of people waiting longer than four hours in A&E: 888,000 in 2012, the government’s replacement for NHS Direct in trouble, and thousands fewer nurses.
David Cameron retorted with the usual suspect numbers about staffing levels, Ed not failing in turn to remind the House how the prime minister was cut down to size by the head of the UK Statistics Authority over his loose use of figures. Cameron, of course, also cited Wales where he claimed the last time the cancer treatment target was met was in 2008 and where he argued Welsh Labour has cut NHS funding by eight per cent.
‘the disgraceful slur on the transformation of the NHS’
The prime minister was at his most brazen when he laid the troubles at Stafford Hospital at Labour’s door, a scandal whose ramifications have by and large remained above party political brawling. Ed was indignant at ‘the disgraceful slur on the transformation of the NHS’, and rightly so. If there was a winner it wasn’t Cameron, yet the prime minister managed to run the gauntlet and emerge relatively unbruised.
Best backbencher?
In an amusingly early question, David Amess revealed to the house that his mother Maude was saddened at the death of Margaret Thatcher but delighted at the prospect of a referendum on the European Union. As she turns 101 next Thursday – would the prime minister bring the poll forward?
Best question, answer, comment or joke?
Sharon Hodgson’s question concerning her constituent, who was declared fit for work following government assessment yet who died months later, was well measured, commanding virtual silence the House as she spoke.
The groans that accompanied Cambridge Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert as he rose to his feet rumbled on throughout his question on cycling, and the speaker intervened to tell the House it was being ‘very discourteous’, and that ‘I can’t life of me fathom why whenever I call the good doctor there are groans’.
‘I can’t life of me fathom why whenever I call the good doctor there are groans’.
I also thought I heard a groan or two when the prime minister was asked, as he has been at previous PMQs, whether he personally stands to benefit from the cut in the 50p tax rate, perhaps a sign the attack is wearing thin and going nowhere fast.
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Adam Harrison is deputy editor of Progress and a Labour councillor. He tweets @AdamDKHarrison