PMQs is mostly about parliamentary morale. The general public doesn’t watch it and while they might see or hear the odd clip, the real benefit for a leader from a good performance is keeping their own troops happy. Theresa May’s performance today will have done little to cheer up the Tory benches. Jeremy Corbyn, who while still not a forensic questioner is becoming a more confident one, got the better of the exchanges.
Corbyn was clever enough to acknowledge the fall in unemployment in his first question, denying May the chance to twit him for not doing so. He thought on his feet, even making a decent joke about how Amber Rudd was being used as a buffer zone to keep Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond apart on the government front bench. He also highlighted George Osborne’s recent comments, at a Spectator event no less, about how Labour hadn’t caused the crash when May tried to blame ‘Labour’s great recession’ for the economy’s problem. More fundamentally, Theresa May defending the economic status quo at a time when so many voters want change is not a great look. May herself had one good moment, when she went back to first principles about how there is no such thing as government money. But, overall, hers was a lacklustre performance that never really recovered from her saying ‘yes’ and then pausing before continuing when Corbyn asked her if she’d pause universal credit.
The SNP leader Ian Blackford had Brexit to himself as Corbyn likes to avoid this topic. But he made a meal of his question, going on too long and confusing Brexit with breakfast. In the chamber. he really isn’t a patch on his predecessor Angus Robertson.
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