PMQs verdict – Bloodsport

A vintage PMQs today for lovers of bloodsport theatre with Ed attacking Cameron on the strikes and the Prime Minister laying into the Labour Leader as “irresponsible, left wing and weak”. But it was a surprise win for Miliband as Cameron failed to attack on what might politely be termed as Labour’s ‘flexibility of position’ on support for the strike and instead chose to paint Labour as in the pocket of trade union paymasters. Ed’s rebuttal (“I’m proud that millions of hard working people in this country support this party, better that then million from Lord Ashcroft”) killed that line of attack. And Ed’s full throated defence of low paid workers who will suffer from the pension deal (“unlike him I’m not going to demonise the dinner lady, the cleaner, the nurse – people who earn in a week what the chancellor pays for his skiing holiday”*) certainly got the Labour backbenchers and tweeters cheering.

But it wasn’t just the low paid who Ed stood up for. Critically politically Ed led with the example of a head teacher who didn’t support the June strikes but is out on strike herself today. In raw political terms, it’s this kind of middle class, white collar managerial support for strike action today that takes the argument for industrial action beyond low-pay lines alone and into “squeezed middle” territory proper. Tying it into unemployment and the overall economic failure of Plan A also allowed Miliband to broaden his argument and win the match.

But beyond the bloodsport, Cameron did well with praise for Mo-vember (and an odd quip given that young Danny Alexander was sitting next to him about “those capable” of growing facial hair), praise for St. Andrew’s Day and a better grasp of policy detail and economic data then is usually the case for our ‘Big picture, no details please’ PM.

* = really? An Osborne skiing holiday that costs just a few hundred quid? Hardly covers even the GO chalet I imagine.

Marcus Roberts is the Deputy General Secretary of the Fabian Society. He writes in a personal capacity.