Labour's aggressive election campaign was evident in Miliband's Budget response

Ed Miliband didn’t produce a spectacular response to the Budget, but neither did he have a bad outing at the despatch box. It was certainly better than his performance last year, and Labour MPs seem – in public at least – quite cheered by the whole thing.

The Labour leader did have to contend with a wall of noise from heckling Tory MPs. The Treasury Support Group has got rather carried away with itself at the past couple of economic statements, producing a boorish roar that requires frequent interruptions from the Speaker rather than under-the-radar witty cricket sledging which works in unsettling the Opposition. You don’t want the public or indeed even the Speaker to notice what you’re doing, otherwise your attacks become part of the story. The heckling did make Miliband’s response go through a rather chaotic phase where he appeared to be jumbling his lines.