Miliband shores up his leadership at noisy PMQs

That was as loud as the Prime Minister’s Questions that immediately preceded the last election. The Labour benches were clearly determined to ensure that there was no repeat of last week’s mauling of Ed Miliband. They barracked David Cameron from the off, even chanting ‘weak, weak, weak’ during his answers and almost every Labour question was on the propriety of the Tories’ relations with their donors. This, combined with a far stronger performance from Ed Miliband, ensured that the session ended with Cameron, not Miliband, on the back foot.

Cameron’s problem is that Miliband is turning this from a debate about union influence on Labour selections into one about money — and when it comes to money, no party looks good. Miliband bashed away at the idea that the Tories are a party funded by millionaires to protect their own interests. Though his claim that some tax break in the Budget was payback for hedge fund donations was rather undercut by the fact that Cameron seemed genuinely unaware of it.