PMQs verdict: Osborne clanger not enough to harm Chancellor’s ambitions

“We’re extremely relieved to see that there’s no Benn in the leadership contest, but plenty of Bennites! Now, when it comes to the very serious situation around ISIL…”

This is a genuine quote. This is how George Osborne, representing the Government at PMQs for the first time, a man with ambitions to do this every week, decided to open today’s exchange. The Chancellor is clearly so confident about his ability that he felt he would be able to move seamlessly from a clunkily scripted aside into an answer about tackling jihadism.

Hilary Benn, deputising for Harriet Harman (with Osborne replacing Cameron, who is abroad), had asked about putting in place precautions to stop young Britons travelling to the Middle East to fight for Islamic State, following reports of a 17 year old from Dewsbury carrying out a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. Osborne’s tone deaf “Bennite” gag response clanged like a frying pan thrown in a well.

Benn did not acknowledge Osborne’s joke, or attempt any of his own – he used all six questions to concentrate on serious topics relating to his brief: foreign policy and security issues. It meant that, once again, PMQs was not its usual boisterous affair. Benn came across well and, the opening joke aside, it gave Osborne the opportunity to appear statesmanlike at the despatch box – it will have done his leadership ambitions no harm.

This revives the question, posed by Ian Austin on Twitter last night, whether Labour’s own leadership hopefuls should get a Wednesday lunchtime outing:

Is this such a bad idea? On the negative side, it could lead to a few gimmicky performances – the reason Benn performed so well today was precisely because he doesn’t want to be leader, and had no need to appear as though he had ‘won’ with a well-delivered one liner. The danger of allowing the candidates to take part is that they would feel the need to get a quote on the evening news, which is not always what makes for a good PMQs performance.

However, there are clear upsides to it. David Cameron has bested every Labour leader he has faced at this despatch box. “You were the future once” is how his exchanges with Blair are remembered, while the number of PMQs ‘victories’ totted up by Brown and Miliband could be counted on one hand. With Labour looking at years of potential misery, someone with the capability to give Cameron a kicking every now and then could do wonders for the party morale and exacerbate Tory splits.