Quite naturally, there were rather more Conservative than Labour MPs in the House of Commons for Treasury Questions this morning. And quite naturally, George Osborne and colleagues on the Treasury front bench spent most of the session goading their Labour opponents about this morning’s growth figures.
Deputy Chief Whip Greg Hands and Ed Balls had a wonderful extended session of heckling one another across the Chamber as the exchanges went on, with Hands mocking Balls’ flatlining gesture.
Other MPs, though, were kept waiting rather longer to do what they’d turned up to do: jeer the Shadow Chancellor when he eventually stood up. But when he eventually stood up, 50 minutes into the session, the Conservative benches went wild with roars. Speaker Bercow was delighted, too, telling them ‘you’ve got the man at the box for whom you were waiting!’ before making a joke about ‘new balls’ in tennis.
The jubilation wasn’t stemmed by Balls’ first few words.
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