Harman’s rivals will have relished her inept PMQs performance

Vintage PMQs today. A decent debate, good jokes and a clear winner. With Brown in America practising his lecture-circuit speech on Congress, his beloved colleague and would-be assassin, Hattie Harman stepped up. She made a sloppy start and forgot to mention yesterday’s massacre in Lahore. A sleek, well-briefed Hague used his first question to remind her, and Harman was forced to offer belated condolences.

Hague then loaded his crossbow with a shaft about lending agreements. The government had promised to ‘help businesses now’ so why hadn’t a single loan been guaranteed? Harman floundered and murmured, ‘Provisions under that scheme are being finalised.’ Squalls of jeers greeted this defensive shimmy. She waffled on about the deferment of tax payments, extra help for pensioners and – drawing even louder jeers – the VAT cut. Hague skewered her with facts and figures. The loan scheme ‘was supposed to be operational by 1st March but the government only applied for clearance from Brussels last week.’