PMQs live blog | 6 July 2011

VERDICT: A crescendo of a PMQs, which started in sombre fashion but soon swelled into a vicious confrontation between the two leaders. It is strangely difficult to say who won, not least because both men had their moments. Ed Miliband’s persistent anger — including over Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of BSkyB — will have chimed with public sentiment. But Cameron went further than expected by backing a public inquiry into the phone hacking affair, and without much equivocation either. In the end, though, I’d say Miliband probably came out on top, for seeming less on the side of News International.

1242: No surprises from Cameron’s statement on Afghanistan. It was, in effect, a more straightforward, less lyrical version of Barack Obama’s recent speech on the same: Osama Bin Laden has been killed, gains have been made, our goals are being accomplished, etc, etc. Cameron confirmed that an extra 500 troops will be pulled out of the country by the end of next year, a figure that had been hammered out with the generals over the past few days.