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The Mitch-hunt tramples across PMQs

By Peter Hoskin
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Those eagerly anticipating a Mitch-hunt in today’s PMQs had to sit waiting for quite some time. First, there was the tragically long list of fallen troops and policewomen to be commemorated, as well as the late MPs Malcolm Wicks and Sir Stuart Bell. And then Ed Miliband led in with questions about today’s employment release. “The unemployment figures today are welcome, particularly the fall in youth employment,” he started, before focusing in on the persistently high number of “long term unemployed”.

But eventually the hunt descended, bearing torches and pitch forks. Mr Miliband segued from a question about police numbers to a question about Andrew Mitchell in one grim step — “they’re not just breaking their promises, it’s their conduct as well” — and then he stuck at the subject. Almost every attack he might have used, he did. He quoted Boris to the effect that those who swear at the police should be banged up. He quoted from the official police report of the incident. He quipped that “While it’s a night in the cell for the yobs, it’s a night in the Carlton Club for the Chief Whip”. And he even deployed that old saw, “It’s one rule for those at the top…”

The scattershot nature of Miliband’s attacks probably helped David Cameron — and Mr Mitchell. As Kevin Maguire has said, the Labour leader might have caused more damage by focusing on one aspect of the story, such as what was actually said on the evening at hand. But, as it was, Mr Cameron was able to deflect the piecemeal questions with a one-size-fits-all response: the Chief Whip has rightly apologised, had his apology accepted, and Labour ought to move on to more important issues. The session was probably more comfortable than the Prime Minster expected.

Which isn’t to say that Mr Cameron “won” this PMQs. In the end, the Mitchell story is never going to play well for the Tories, whenever it’s aired. But it’s just that Mr Miliband scraped a victory, where he might have romped to one.

The Chief Whip didn’t feature half as much in the backbench questions, although Labour’s Kevin Brennan did bring up the aid money that Mr Mitchell dispatched to Rwanda in his final days as International Development Secretary. The PM dealt with this line of attack confidently enough, saying that “I continue to believe in investing in Rwanda’s success,” and that “we should be very frank and very firm” with President Kagame about what this money is for.

More interesting were some of the non-Mitchell leitmotifs that emerged from the backbenches. The subject of our nuclear deterrent featured several times, including in a question from the Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey, who was deposed as a MoD minister at the last reshuffle. Hinting at what might become a precipitous fault-line between the two Coalition partners, he urged Mr Cameron to “Keep an open mind on how exactly to replace our nuclear deterrent.” But Mr Cameron didn’t sound much up for budging, saying that the deterrent has to be “credible,” otherwise it won’t act as a deterrent at all.

And Mr Cameron sounded similarly set in his thinking when it came to Europe. “I don’t want an in-out referendum because I’m not happy with us leaving Europe,” he said. It is a referendum on a renegotiated settlement between Britain and Europe that will “be going in our manifesto”.

From the Labour benches, there was much spikiness. It began with Willie Bain pushing Ed Miliband’s subverted One Nation theme, and calling Mr Cameron a “divisive Prime Minister”. And it continued with an extraordinary exchange in which Chris Bryant probed the PM about his communications with Rebekah Brooks. “When the truth comes out the Prime Minister won’t be smiling,” quivered Bryant. But Mr Cameron quivered just as much in return, chiding the Labour MP for previously quoting from some Leveson documents that were under embargo at the time. “Until he apologises, I’m not going to be answering his questions,” said the PM, not altogether wisely.

And as for Tory backbench questions, the most ear-catching were Nadine Dorries’ on planning laws and Andrew Bridgen's on Labour’s misleading campaign in Corby. But the television camera really only had eyes for one Tory MP that wasn’t the Prime Minister, and that was Andrew Mitchell. The Chief Whip looked uncomfortable throughout, perched next to Andrew Lansley, although he issued a note of defiance by — it seems — claiming that he didn't swear during his rant at a police officer. The story now has a new turn to take, and the hunt will surely follow.

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