Has David Cameron’s tax debacle united the Tories?

Yet again, David Cameron has reason to be grateful for the quality of the opposition facing him. First of all, Jeremy Corbyn took until Cameron’s statement to release his own tax return, meaning that journalists were studying that as much as his response in the House of Commons. Second, Corbyn’s own response was long on verbiage but failed to ask any difficult questions of Cameron. Finally, Dennis Skinner had John Bercow order him from the chamber for refusing to withdraw his use of the word ‘dodgy’ about Cameron, which rather reinforced the point that the case against Cameron is long on name-calling and short on specifics.

Cameron himself came armed with a far better defence of unit trusts than he had previously managed. He pointed out that even Islington Council uses an offshore investment fund. He then tried to turn Labour’s attack on his family’s inheritance tax arrangements into an argument about Labour being an ‘enemy of aspiration’.

In Number 10, they will also have been reassured by how broadly supportive Tory MPs were.