It was the unending struggle between David Cameron and Ed Balls that defined today’s PMQs. After the shadow chancellor revealed at the weekend that pensions would be included in Labour’s welfare cap, Tory MPs set the PM up to deliver attack after attack on Labour for targeting those who’ve “worked hard all their lives”. As Balls furiously pointed out, the party has pledged to keep the “triple lock” on pensions, but Cameron seized on Douglas Alexander’s statement that this was their policy “at present” (the standard formulation used by shadow ministers) to declare that Labour would “cut the pension”. That Cameron is now able to claim as much, however implausibly, is dangerous for Balls and Miliband. As the PM knows well, It is the over-65s who are the most likely age group to vote (76 per cent did in 2010, compared to 65 per cent of the total population). Cameron is now framing Labour as the party that wants to “protect welfare [it has refused to support the £26,000 benefit cap in its current form], punish hardworkers and punish pensioners.”
Cameron launched another rhetorical assault on Balls later in the session when he declared that the shadow chancellor’s statement that the last Labour government did not spend too much “will be hung around his neck forever”, describing it as “the most important quote in the last 10 years of politics.” For the Tories, Balls’s and Miliband’s refusal to “apologise” for overspending gives them the opening they need to claim that Labour has “learned nothing” from the crash.
The exchanges between Cameron and Miliband – on Syria and living standards – were less memorable but highlighted the significant division that has opened up between the two parties on arming the Syrian rebels. Miliband asked the PM: “given that Russia is prepared to send more arms to the Syrian government, does the Prime Minister think it is at all realistic for that ‘tipping strategy’ to work?” Cameron replied by insisting that he had “not made a decision to supply the Syrian opposition with weapons” but floundered when asked by Miliband what safeguards had been put in place in the event that he did. With many on the Tory benches as sceptical of Labour of the merits of arming the rebels (81 Conservative MPs signed a motion demanding a vote on the matter), this is likely to become a growing headache for the PM.
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