James Forsyth James Forsyth

MPs gave a pantomime response to Ukip at today’s PMQs

PMQs was always going to be an odd event today. David Cameron is going as Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn is trying to survive wave after wave of resignations from his front bench. When Corbyn rose to his feet, there was almost complete silence from the Labour benches—there was the odd chuckle from the Tory one.

The first few exchanges were relatively flat. But then Cameron was clearly riled by Corbyn suggesting that the referendum had been lost because voters didn’t think the status quo was working for them. Cameron swiped back that if the EU referendum was Corbyn putting his back into something, as the Labour leader had claimed, then he ‘would hate to see him when he’s not trying.’ But this was just the warm up. For when Corbyn came back and asked another question, Cameron replied that while it might be in the Tory party’s interest for Corbyn to stay on as Labour leader, it wasn’t in either the national interest or the interests of democracy for him to stay.

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