Miliband’s performance last night vindicates the Tories’ strategy of no head-to-head debates

David Cameron and Ed Miliband both ‘won’ last night’s TV Q&A session. The Prime Minister put in a decent performance and came out ahead in the snap poll. But Miliband exceeded expectations, albeit ones which were pretty low. It was a given that Cameron would be fluent and deal ably with the casual conversations in the audience Q&A. But some expected a faux pas from Miliband and it never came.

Miliband did not put in a game changing performance, and we haven’t seen yet how large last night’s audience was by the time Miliband came on at quarter to ten. But it has given Labour some momentum ahead of its campaign launch today in East London. On the Today programme this morning, Labour’s election chief Douglas Alexander argued that Miliband’s performance will have ‘surprised’ viewers:

‘A lot of people watching Ed last night, who may have been expecting a caricature that they’ve read about in the newspapers, but instead saw someone who I thought was warm honest and open — but also who communicated that passion and exactly that sense of toughness that you need to do the job.’