PMQs - Election battle lines harden

A general election may be 18 months away but already the battle lines are not only being drawn but hardened too. At PMQs today the PM gave a robust, overtly partisan performance, in full election mode it seemed.

At every opportunity Brown attacks Cameron and the Conservatives as the "do nothing leader of a do nothing party" and the Conservatives, for their part, hit back that Brown is an irresponsible leader who is burdening the country with unprecedented debt and will hit every worker with a "tax bombshell" after the general election.

Cameron began PMQs by trying to get the PM to admit that he considered a VAT tax increase planned for after the next general election (15 percent up to 18.5 percent). In this the Tory leader was only partially successful. Brown admitted that many proposals were considered but then went out of his way to try and nullify the charge that he secretly plans this increase but is hiding it from the British people. Cameron had hoped Brown would be shifty leaving the impression that he was planning a "VAT tax bombshell" but Brown strongly criticised the increases of VAT by previous Conservative governments and was successful, it must be said, in leaving the impression that he is strongly opposed to increasing VAT above 17.5 percent.

In response to one of Brown's numerous "do nothing" jibes Cameron sought to set out the help Conservatives have said they would offer individuals and small businesses. The problem Cameron has is that although they may help they are pretty small beer and Brown and Darling mocked the Tory leader as he listed his proposals. The Conservatives are vulnerable to Brown's "do nothing" charge. Brown loves reducing politics to dividing lines and his new one is Labour action vs. Tory inaction. When people are hurting in an economy he can point to his fiscal stimulus and say "look, I'm pumping £20 billion into the economy to help us get out of recession what's the other guy offering - nothing."

Cameron can, and has, pointed out that the recession is not just imported from America but has many components that have the stamp 'Made in Britain' on them and thus this is Brown's recession. Another tactic is to attack the stimulus itself which Cameron did well at PMQs. He not only said that it will lead to higher taxes for everyone just at the point when the economy is trying to recover but also attacked the effectiveness of the stimulus. Cameron said there was "nothing stimulating" about the Pre-Budget Report package when the 2.5 percent cut in VAT was already being outweighed by shops discounting by 20 percent or more. This is something that he needs to continue with to combat Brown's "do nothing" jibes. Essentially, Brown's fiscal stimulus is a costly dud. Brown is only doing this because he feels he has to be seen to be acting not because what he is doing will help. £20 billion is a lot of money just to rescue the Premiership of Gordon Brown, helping him bribe his way to an electoral victory through his ineffective tax giveaways that we will have to pay double to fund ultimately. Cameron is confident that the British people won't allow themselves to be bribed in this way.

The two leaders also squared off on the issue of public debt. Cameron argued that in five years time the national debt will be over £1 trillion and tried to get Brown to admit this was true. Brown was desperate not to give the Tories the weapon of TV footage of him admitting this explicitly so only said that the Treasury had "published the figures." Therefore it was a yes without saying yes. He also said that Treasury figures had also established that debt would rise to 58 percent of GDP over the next few years and said that this was still lower than other counties' national debt levels (though those other countries do not have the same off-balance sheet debt that the UK has). Cameron jumped on this figure saying it was the same percentage level as when former Labour Chancellor Lord Healey was forced to go to the IMF in the 1976 for a humiliating bailout. Brown hit back: "I'm sorry I have to give him an economic lesson every week" and reiterated his point that the Conservatives would do nothing. He also quoted Andrew Lansley stupidly writing on the Conservative blog the other day that "this recession can be good for us." Cameron said the government had the "debt levels of Italy and the accounting practices of Enron." Cameron finished saying: "The country's going bankrupt, he's been found out, and New Labour's dead." Brown retorted that he was providing "real help to real people" and called Cameron the "do nothing leader of the do nothing party" once more for good measure.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg decided to lead on 'fairness' as this was the message Labour had been spinning about the PBR. Indeed, Clegg said 'fairness' had been mentioned 8 times in Darling's PBR. Clegg wanted to know that if the PBR was really so 'fair' why had Brown increased national insurance so that it will hit millions of middle-income workers. Clegg said the PM had had the chance to make a difference but chose not to. The Lib Dem leader wanted to know why Brown had wasted his chance? Brown replied saying the government had raised child credit, pension credit and the minimum wage.

Clegg said he wanted an answer not a list and said the Prime Minister offered only bluster rather than a response to the question. Clegg said Brown could have given big fair tax cuts if only he would close the tax loopholes that the wealthy exploit such as capital gains for millionaires. The Lib Dem leader accused Brown of toying with the hopes of the British people and asked why he had let them down? Brown said the government had given real change to families. He had raised the state pension and his cut in VAT will benefit low income families. And with bare faced cheek, Brown finished with: "We are the party of fairness. A party calling for £20 billion of cuts in services is not a party of fairness." Clegg just shook his head - how many times is Brown going to distort Lib Dem economic policy?

VERDICT

Brown was on good form today and although Cameron and Clegg asked good questions they struggled to land punches on Brown who was in a combative mood swinging his "great clunking fist." Many of the points the PM made wouldn't stand up against 10 seconds scrutiny (some are just outright lies) but with sheer outrageous bravado and an ability to avoid answering questions and not concern himself with facts, he edged this contest.

Brown - 8/10

Cameron - 7/10

Clegg - 7/10