Sometimes the problem with Twitter is that you call it too soon. Ex-Labour MP Tony McNulty got in trouble at today’s prime minister’s questions by tweeting halfway through, ‘Public desperate for PM in waiting who speaks for them – not leader of opposition indulging in partisan Westminster Village knockabout’. It was a tweet David Cameron’s people found and the prime minister read it out smugly during the debate.
Perhaps McNulty is still smarting at not being shortlisted in Brent Central. But Mark Ferguson from LabourList had also agreed on Twitter this was a win for Cameron.
I’m not so sure. Cameron’s desire to really put the boot into Labour made him look more often like a mud-wrestler than a prime minister. Eventually it was the Rev Paul Flowers, the former chair of the Co-op bank, who was apparently caught by the Mail on Sunday paying £300 for illegal substances, who was his undoing.
It all started quite tamely. Miliband went on sure start. How was the campaign going to save the Chipping Norton children’s centre? The prime minister, it turned out, had signed a petition to stop the centre in his constituency closing. ‘Is the petition to the Tory council or is he taking it right to the top?’, Miliband pursued. He’s getting good at this: keeping to a topic he feels comfortable with and not responding to Cameron’s jibes, pushing Cameron to look less prime ministerial. His opponent repeated that only one per cent of sure start centres have closed. It sounded evasive, and, as 578 sure start centres have closed, it probably was.
The attack made the Tories feel uncomfortable. Andrew Lansley, the former health secretary, was squirming next to Cameron in his pink tie. It would have been far better to have a concerned woman in that position, but the Tories just hadn’t thought.
Cameron anyway was itching to embarrass the Labour party. He started to say Miliband’s numbers didn’t add up, that Labour is trying to fund every new policy from the bank levy. ‘This isn’t a policy,’ he finally managed. ‘It’s a night out with Rev Flowers.’ He gave that triumphant look he does when he pulls out one of his pre-prepared joke. You can almost see the Quad sitting around and thinking this is sooo funny.
Ed ploughed on, repeating the planning minister Nick Boles’ suggestion at a Bright Blue meeting last night that the Conservative party was just for the rich. Cameron attacked again, deploying Miliband adviser Torsten Bell’s leaked email about Ed Balls which suggested the shadow chancellor was a ‘nightmare’.
There was shouting, calls for calm by the speaker and Ed Miliband declared, slightly less sure-footedly than he should have done, that Cameron was a loser.
It was at this point that a prime minister with sensitivity should have realised that he could regain the high ground.
But Cameron didn’t. In fact, he looked less prime ministerial and more like the parochial local politician that Ed had claimed he was at the beginning. His suggested enquiry into the Co-op bank seemed confected and opportunistic. And when he started telling everyone they should support business week he sounded like a dull council leader.
But most telling were the questions from MPs. Time after time MPs from all parties expressed worries about basic public services in their constituencies, from Tory David Burrowes’ friendly question about the Accident and Emergency in Chase Farm Hospital to Lib Dem Adrian Sanders’ question about credit unions, not to mention Labour MPs worried about VAT on children’s clothes and childcare cuts.
It was Michael Meacher who had the last laugh. Britain, he said, was 159th in the world in terms of business investment behind Paraguay, Mali and Guatemala. When could Britain expect to do better than Mali? Cameron accused him of having been last night ‘out on the town with the Rev Flowers.’
It was a shocking putdown and Meacher did not let it go. Prime minister’s questions ended with him raising a point of order, asking whether it was parliamentary of the prime minister to suggest that an MP had been taking ‘mind-altering substances.’ Wasn’t there room for ‘Light-hearted banter and a sense of humour on both sides?’, sneered Cameron. The end of PMQs echoed to Labour cries of ‘Shame.’ And Cameron the nasty, mud-wrestling bullyboy had been exposed.
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Sally Gimson is a journalist, a Labour councillor, and reviews PMQs on Progress. She tweets @SallyGimson