PMQs verdict: Back to Royal Mail sell-off as Cameron tries to win over his own side

With The Independent’s front page splash this morning, Miliband decided to again go big on the Royal Mail sale, pointing out that shares were now 50% higher than when they were sold, “losing the taxpayer £1billion”. This perhaps also served as a rebuke to rumours circulating over the past few days that Labour would offer Vince Cable the position of Chancellor in a Lib Dem/Labour coalition government.

“Would I really”, Miliband seemed to say, “offer that job to a person who was responsible for this policy?”

Cameron made a conscious choice from the beginning not to answer the questions, instead opting to defend the sale on principle. While this worked on the whole today – Miliband obviously had his barbs prepared and didn’t want to waste any by attempting to skewer the Prime Minister with repeated questions – it’s a dangerous ploy for the PM. He seems so wedded to the concept of selling the Royal Mail shares that he may struggle to accept any disadvantages of it all. Refusing to accept the stance of your opponent on principle can be an effective firewall, preventing getting taken to task properly as you fail to engage; but it also hinders your ability to land a real blow yourself. As the two men talk at cross-purposes for fifteen minutes, neither has room to get a winner.

For Cameron, this is the PMQs equivalent of tactically basically parking the bus – although there was a touch more Allardyce than Mourinho about it.

In the end, Cameron seemed to be aiming this one at his own backbenchers, buoying them with his repeated references to “privatisation” and “capitalism” – the type of ideologically loaded words that party leaders usually try and avoid.

The thing that seemed to annoy Cameron more than anything today was being cut off by Bercow as he went on a tortuously linked detour to force a joke about David Axelrod. The Speaker sat him down before he reached his punchline and we got a glimpse of “Flashman” Dave as he pettily protested: “I’m not finished!” While he was obviously annoyed, it’s worth remembering that nothing else will have cheered his MPs up more than having a pop at Bercow.

While retreading the Royal Mail material might not have been the best idea (two of April’s three PMQs sessions have now been devoted to the subject), Miliband did add something new: quoting Tory MPs. Reading out the views of Brian Binley, that the sell-off was “unethical”, seemed to work quite well. Obviously, it’s not a completely new idea, and the times we’ve seen it put to best use in recent years was when Cameron himself was opposition leader. Week after week, he would have yet another quote from yet another Labour MP bemoaning Gordon Brown. He did it so well, in fact, that many Labour MPs took to watching the exchanges from the safety of their offices, so that they wouldn’t have to be in the Chamber in case CCHQ spinners had found a quote of theirs during the week’s digging.

While the PM may have been playing up to his MPs today, it’s no secret that many hold him in less than high regards. Miliband should use that to his advantage more often.