Ed Miliband returns to the Commons as Osborne announces £3bn of more cuts

Ed Miliband has wasted little time in returning to speaking duties in the House of Commons. George Osborne came to the Chamber to announce £4.5bn of savings – made up of £3bn from non-protected departmental Budgets and £1.5bn from asset sales, including the disposal of the government’s remaining 30 per cent stake in the Royal Mail – and Miliband was in place to hear him. Once Osborne’s duel with the new shadow chancellor Chris Leslie was over, Miliband rose to speak.

Unlike when he was leader of the opposition, Miliband was heard in respectful silence — Tory backbenchers, perhaps, took their cue from Osborne who declared that Miliband had earned the ‘respect of the House’ by turning up to the debate. Miliband began with an amusing anecdote about how his eldest son had remarked to him that they would be alright if there was a fire as the Fire Brigade would recognise that the former Labour leader ‘used to be famous’ and come quickly.