PMQs Verdict: Complacent Cameron? PM unprepared as Corbyn changes tack

“I ask you, for the sixth time, please give us the answer to a very simple question.”

Jeremy Corbyn looked weary, as he often does, when he stood up to the despatch box for his sixth question to the Prime Minister this afternoon.

The weariness played well here. Sometimes he looks weary at the rigmarole of politics, or the fact that he has to wear a tie, but today he held the slight irritation of a man trying and failing to get someone to do a relatively simple task. All he wanted to know was whether Cameron could guarantee that no one would be worse off in April as a result of the cuts to tax credits. Six times Cameron refused to say either way – which is an answer of sorts, I suppose.

It was a drastic change of style for Corbyn, who has previously relied far more heavily on crowdsourced questions. Today, there was only one, from Karen, a working mother who depends on tax credits, which echoed Jeremy’s five other questions.

It was like the PMQs of old. One question, chosen because it is politically inconvenient for the PM to answer, asked again and again and again. Cameron looked like he didn’t know what had hit him. He is by now used to Corbyn’s longwinded and clearly-signposted interrogations, and had prepared only one comment on tax credit cuts – in previous bouts Corbyn had failed to pick-up when Cameron’s answers had not matched the questions.

Cameron’s only response was that things would be spelled out fully in the Autumn Statement, and would not confirm things any further. But oddly, not because he doesn’t know the answer. A spokesperson confirmed that he did, but that we would have to wait until the Chancellor’s statement next month to find out. I suspect, though, that I could hazard a guess at what the answer will be.

Today was further proof of the damage the tax credits issue has done to Cameron and Osborne. They are not hiding it well. You only need look at their faces. They know.

Is this the end of Corbyn’s fully crowdsourced questions? Apparently not. Corbyn intends “mix and match”, we’re told, and will use different styles depending on what is better that week at holding the Government to account. Reading out emails from supporters can also be time-consuming, and Speaker Bercow has apparently requested he make his questions pithier.

There are some bits that still didn’t quite click: he could have started with Karen’s question and come back to it, rather than ended with it, and his earnest disapproval at noisy Tory MPs carries less weight when his own backbenchers are yelling “Answer the question!” every time Cameron gets to his feet. But these are just niggles, and hopefully Corbyn can adapt to the improvisation needed at PMQs. He showed today, at least, that he can be adaptable.