It was Ed Miliband who had the most to gain from tonight’s TV event – and he did. He was better-prepared, more fluent and more inspiring than David Cameron, reminding us of the qualities that enabled him to defeat his brother for the Labour leadership in 2010 (a subject raised several times). As one aide told me afterwards: “That’s why David Cameron doesn’t want to go head-to-head with Ed Miliband”.
The evening started badly for the PM as a forensic Jeremy Paxman pressed him on foodbanks, zero-hours contracts and his net migration pledge. Faced with the kind of sustained scrutiny he rarely endures, Cameron was nervy and rattled. “That’s not the question,” he helplessly pleaded when asked whether he could live on a zero-hours contract, a slip that provoked guffaws in the press room. He never recovered from these missteps and rarely appeared in control.
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