PMQs live blog: June 16th

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

12:25 Elfyn Llwyd asks whether £7 million per day could be saved from the national budget by bringing the home troops from Afghanistan, as soon as possible. David Cameron replies:

“We need to put our effort and our shoulder behind the wheel to make sure the military and political surge are successful.”

12:15 Harman asks “will he welcome that after the OBR forecasts and the plans we put in place, unemployment will be lower”. Cameron answers the the OBR shows how the numbers at the last budget “were a complete fiction”. Harriet Harman says that David Cameron has been on a “magic roundabout”, praising Labour’s economic plans up to 2008, then opposing them.

Will Straw adds:

“Both Harman & Cameron are right on ILO unemployment. ILO measure is up 23,000 this month but down on last month (which was 53,000).”

Writing on Left Foot Forward, Will Straw has also looked at Reform’s proposals for reducing the deficit:

“Reform’s report, ‘Budget 2010: Taking the tough choices’, argues for an immediate fiscal retrenchment which goes further even than the Conservative party’s pre-election plans to reduce the “bulk” of the structural deficit by 2014-15. Due to a series of proposed tax cuts – including reversing the 50p rate and reducing National Insurance Contributions – over 90 per cent of the fiscal consolidation would come from spending cuts resulting in a public sector net borrowing of 0.3 per cent by 2014.”

12:06 Harriet Harman asks if Cameron will promise that the budget next week will not “put more people out of work”. Cameron says “we will bring in our work programme… honourable members should remember why we have record unemployment”. Again attacking the last government, rather than providing answers. Harriet notes that the OBR says the economy would improve under Labour’s existing plans, as Mark Ferguson wrote on Monday.

12:05 Philip Davies, the Tory MP, has asked about fewer prisoners. David Cameron says the government’s challenge is delivering a “tough response to crime, at a time when the last government has left us with no money”.

Ahead of PQMs today, The Daily Politics has a feature called BROWN WATCH. Gordon has been in a school in Fife, talking about future jobs and the need to make sure schools, in particular, are connected to the internet.