PMQs Verdict: Sharp Eagle pricks Osborne’s confidence

There be one more PMQs left before the break, but this felt like the Christmas special. It was a punchy, at times barbed, exchange, with more laughs than usual – but essentially non-canon. It was a fun half hour, yet will not change the dynamics of either party.

With David Cameron away in Eastern Europe, it was George Osborne at the despatch box for the Government, up against the Shadow First Secretary of State Angela Eagle for the first time. An energetic cheer met her from the Labour benches as she got to her feet – the kind of cheer, it has been widely noted, that the PLP tend not to afford to Jeremy Corbyn.

Eagle did not have the sharpest set of questions, but she had a bagful of pointed remarks to needle Osborne with. She was quick on her feet, delivered her jokes well and – unlike Corbyn – seemed to relish the noise from the benches opposite, using it to delay her gags as she toyed with the Chancellor.

In faux-Corbynian style, she read out the views of “Donald from Brussels” (a neat reference to the President of the European Council), who had this week written that “uncertainty about the future of the UK in the European Union is a destabilising factor”. She mocked Osborne’s leadership ambitions, as well as those of his rivals, and when faced with the inevitable nod to Tony Blair’s article today, was well-prepared enough to have a Blair quote ready to reply with:

“Just mouth the words ‘five more Tory years’ and you find your senses and reason repulsed by what they’ve done to our country.”

As the Labour MPs howled with glee, a thought struck me: even if Corbyn had been given that quote, would he have used it? I suspect not.

The Tories knew that it could have gone better for them. After Osborne answered Eagle’s final question, there was no shout of “More!” as Cameron usually receives. It hit the Chancellor’s confidence. When faced with a planted question that mentioned the “red book”, he struggled through the obviously prepared punchline, eager to sit down.

This is the second time Osborne has taken PMQs in Cameron’s absence, and the second time he has struggled. It is worth reflecting on Cameron’s good fortune over the past ten years (his first PMQs was 7th December 2005). His main opponents have Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. Blair was at the weak end of his premiership during their encounters, while the other three are no masters of the despatch box exchanges.

Both Benn and Eagle have now taken Osborne to task. If Cameron misses many more Wednesdays, will it weaken his favoured successor?