PMQs verdict – What have I done?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

It was always destined to be something of a damp squib. There was plenty of green bench visible today – especially on the Labour side of the house – as MPs spend the final day before local and devolved elections in their constituencies.

Ed Miliband did his best to fire up his unusually small band of Labour MPs, and went in hard on police cuts and forced redundancy. It was presumably a calculated attack. It chimes with the “too far, too fast” line, and in areas facing significant police cuts like Greater Manchester it will play well on the doorstep.

No matter how hard he tried though, he couldn’t overcome the Tories sizeable numerical advantage. The government benches cheered and jeered and whooped. Cameron – who was angry as usual, but more controlled – expertly channeled the mocking of his backbenchers towards the Labour leader. It was one of Cameron’s strongest performances in weeks. This PMQs will be forgotten quickly, but Cameron managed to break up a run of Miliband victories, and that’s psychologically important.

The real story of this PMQs though was Nick Clegg. He was completely motionless next to the PM throughout. Impassive. Almost waxwork-like. Every so often his lips would murmur something, but it could have been a trick of the light, like when you see an inanimate object move out of the corner of your eye.

The early vigour that Clegg showed has gone the same way as his new politics. He looked drained. He looked like a man who knows that he is finished, and is just waiting for the executioners call. It was unpleasant to watch. It made me sorry for him. Almost. Not much. But the emotion was briefly there. It must be horrible for him.

The moment that should have cheered the haggard looking DPM came at the end of Miliband and Cameron’s sparring session. Cameron began to sound like Gordon Brown, reeling off “achievements”. Except whilst for Brown this was a sort of default position, for Cameron it seemed a highly defensive manoeuvre. The PM ran through the highlights of his first year in government. There were notable nods to Lib Dem aims like lifting people out of tax, and the pupil premium. Yet Clegg remained distant. No smiles. Little recognition.

Just one sentence repeated on a loop inside his head, which looks likely to get louder tomorrow. “What have I done?”