PMQs sketch: Ed Miliband poses as the king of the jungle

Ed Miliband had fun with his dressing-up box today. At PMQs he tried on all kinds of disguises in the hope of scaring the government.

First Europe and the EU budget negotiations. Miliband’s approach here is full of cunning and dishonesty. He called for ‘real terms reduction’ even though he knows full well that a freeze is the best the government can hope for. But by suggesting an impossible tactic he can claim that David Cameron has missed a trick.

‘Rank opportunism,’ declared the PM, ‘and the country will see through it.’ He reminded us of Labour’s record at the negotiating table seven years ago. Back then Ed Milband and his colleagues were happy to pitchfork great flapping bales of cash onto the EU money-pyre. Worse still, they threw away half the UK’s rebate like a gin-soaked duke giving his chauffeur the Rolls-Royce as a birthday present.

Yet there was a certain magnificence to Miliband’s buccaneering hypocrisy today.