PMQs liveblog: November 24th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Verdict: It was surprising to hear Ed Miliband lead off with school sport. It may well be a worthy and important issue, but in a week when Ed Miliband should have been gunning for big hits, he wasn’t going to get them over school sports funding. Cameron however continued to do what he always does at PMQS – ducking, diving David doesn’t answer questions. He does, however, use some dubious statistics. His favourite today was that only 1 in 5 school kids play competitive sport against another school. That sounds low. Of course it is. Not everyone gets picked for the school football team. Watch that one unravel later.

Ed then followed up with questions on the banks, which is much more fertile and populist ground, but Cameron preferred to shout back at Ed rather than answer his questions, showing off more of the Flashman factor. He only answers soft questions from his own benches, and acts with agression when questioned – not promising behaviour for a PM. Ed landed his only real blow at the end of his questions, but it was a zinger. As Cameron sought to criticise Miliband for being in the Treasury under Brown, Ed countered – reminding the PM that he was in the Treasury on Black Wednesday. Whilst this might cheer Labour MPs, don’t expect that to gain any traction outside the chamber – the current economic crisis is well established, but Black Wednesday isn’t something many voters will give much thought to.

In all, a solid but unspectacular performance from Miliband, but he really should’ve found something more meaty to use in this important PMQs than school sport. As for Cameron – it’s more shouty, evading questions and dubious stats. Both have real room for improvement.

12.28: Tory backbencher flags up charity concerns over local authority cuts. When even the Tory benches are concerned, you know how deep the cuts are.

12.24: Luciana Berger asks Cameron what the difference is between a “promise” and a “pledge” over EMA. Cameron resorts to the “we were left in a terrible mess” excuse which is already becoming tired.

12.21: Dennis Skinner says there’s a “stench of hypocrisy” about trying to cut immigration whilst supporting Turkey’s application to join the union. A Tory backbencher gives Cameron a patsy question about Unite, which he uses to attack Ed Miliband.

12.20: Cameron continues to say that only 1/5 students take part in competitive sport against other schools. This is a ludicrous example – only so many students can be on school sports teams. Or perhaps he’s in favour of 1000 a side football matches?

12.17: Delighted to hear Movember get a mention in PMQs – a fine charity. Lib Dem backbencher Julian Huppert flags up the importance of foreign students to the British economy, Cameron says he wants to crack down on “bogus students”.

12.13: Ed Miliband says that we need transparency in the private sector as well as the public sector – Cameron says that he won’t take lectures from Ed Miliband on the banks as Ed was in the Treasury when banking regulation was formulated. Ed Miliband hits Cameron with a sucker punch – Cameron was in the Treasury on Black Wednesday.

12.12: Tory backbench agitator Bill Cash attacks Cameron’s stance on Europe – perhaps the Tory benches aren’t happy about the Irish bailout…

12.06: Cameron says that the investment in school sports didn’t work. Ed Miliband says he’ll regret that answer – and reels off statistics that suggest the opposite. Cameron responds with his own statistics – focussing on “competitive sport”. Ed Miliband has a response though, quoting a constituent of his calling this a “daft decision” – he moves on to attack Michael Gove, calling him “High-handed, incompetent and unfair”.

12.03: Loud cheers for Ed Miliband as he stands to ask his first question of the day, and thanks both Deputy PM and PM for their generous gifts on the birth of his son Samuel. He opens with a question on Education, and it’s cutting the school sports partnership that is concerning him.

12.00: PMQs kicks off with Labour’s Michael Connarty asking a question about “fair tips” for restaurant workers – it’s a little known issue, but one that’s important for low paid workers and this may get it on the radar.

11.51: Ed Miliband is back from paternity leave, and faces his first public test since the reported early dissent of last week. It’s easy to forget that Miliband has been leader for less than two months, during which time we’ve seen shadow cabinet elections, the CSR, the Strategic Defence review – and he’s recently become a father for the second time. In truth, he’s not fully into his stride as leader yet, but the job has only just begun. A strong performance today will be a good downpayment on the work to be done between now and Christmas.

What can we expect Ed to use as ammunition today? Lord Young seems the obvious attack line – and will force Cameron to agree with the ousted adviser or ignore the jibes – but expect Cameron to return fire, quoting some of the negative press coverage from the paterntity leave period…