PMQs Verdict: Cameron’s new rebuttal leaves TV debates in doubt

William Hague would beat Tony Blair at PMQs. Week in, week out, the nasal-voiced Yorkshireman famed for wearing a baseball cap on a log flume would stand in front of his often half-filled backbenches and take the savvy media operator Prime Minister to town. Why? He was funnier. Genuinely funny gags can turn a weak question into an uncomfortable attack.

It wasn’t until Blair’s PMQs team came up with the “He might be good at the jokes, but” rebuttal that he started to hit the form he had been used to when facing John Major over the despatch box. From then on, the best aspect of Hague’s performances were neutered: the punchlines were all well and good, but there were no decent policies behind them. Wry one-liners are not enough for a would be PM.

A few wouldn’t hurt, though. Modern PMQs are often bereft of anything approaching humour – although David Blunkett’s observation that Cameron’s long term economic plan “like Pinocchio’s nose grows ever longer and less attractive” wasn’t bad. The leaders tend not to stray into that sort of territory. Their exchanges manage to be both increasingly juvenile and drearily po-faced. This week, one was a “chicken”, the other “weak”. One a “bully”, the other “despicable”.

Of course, this doesn’t stop the backbenchers roaring with delight at these thigh-slapping barbs. For me, it’s the cut away to Government backbencher questions that really ram home how diverse Cameron’s receptive audience is that really makes it worthwhile:

On substance, Ed Miliband went for Cameron on the TV debates again this week. The Labour leader has, over recent months, taken to devoting all six of his weekly questions to one topic (not always, but it has become a theme). Cameron’s stubborn refusal to take part in leaders’ debates, while hardly a great scandal of our age, has made for both an easy win for Miliband in recent weeks, and a guaranteed spot on the evening news. Broadcasters are desperate for the debates to go ahead, and Miliband can use their agenda to get greater airtime.

There is no doubt, then, that going on TV debates as been an effective attack. The problem is that Cameron may now have found his “He might be good at the jokes, but” retort. That answer he trailed yesterday, “If I was blocking a debate, I wouldn’t be proposing a debate”, is so ludicrous that it would fall apart if taken on by an effective interviewer.

No, today’s was much better. On perhaps the fifth time of asking why he was avoiding the debates, Cameron replied:

“He wants to talk about the future of a television programme. I want to talk about the future of the country.”

It makes Miliband look trivial, and makes Cameron look like he’s more interested in big matters of national importance. Miliband would be brave to revive the topic at either of the last two PMQs of this parliament.

It seems a shame that a topic as important as defence spending could have made for an easy Miliband win this week, yet in the end was left to Labour backbenchers Stella Creasy and Gisela Stuart. Just one question from the Opposition leader on that, and Cameron’s TV debates line would have been a dud. No debate.