ePolitix.com - PMQs - The Verdict

As Gordon Brown entered the chamber to face David Cameron he would be forgiven for thinking that whatever was about to happen it couldn't be worse than last week - and so it proved to be.

Since then the focus has shifted from Brown's leadership to that of the Liberal Democrats, and the absence of Sir Menzies Campbell on the frontbench told its own story of how treacherous life at the top can be.

But David Cameron was in his place, and as the longest serving major party leader a comparative veteran at these events.

He sprang to his feet to a huge Conservative cheers, the benches invigorated by last week's performance, improving polls and faltering rival parties.

Cameron led on hospital acquired infections and linked their rise with the imposition of targets on hospitals.

Brown set out the measures the government is taking to tackle the problem and robustly defended the use of targets to raise standards.

"I'm afraid that he has not done his research," said Brown of Cameron's enquiry, adopting the headmasterly tone that plays on his strengths rather than the angry petulance the Tory leader managed to provoke last week.

Indeed if Brown is to master this platform he needs a lot more of playing the serious statesman and a lot less of the gags that he is incapable of delivering.

Apart from developing a worrying Prescottian tendency with mis-pronunciation, Brown fluffed a joke about Cameron comparing himself to Arnold Schwarzenegger, another about Lib Dems MPs having a go as stand-in leader, and managed to call William Hague "foreign secretary".

"It's only a matter of time," said Cameron on the latter gaff.

However overall the prime minister was far more measured and assured than last week and his backbenches gave him plenty of support, as if the whips had persuaded them that it was time to move on from recent problems and back their leader.

In fact they were so enthusiastic that Brown's parliamentary private secretary Ian Austin was rebuked by the Speaker for repeatedly shouting.

"It comes to something when you have to tick off the prime minister's own PPS," Cameron observed before further attacking Labour on the NHS.

Brown hit back: "They [the Conservatives] have a £6bn black hole in their spending plans, it will mean deep cuts in the National Health Service, the leader of the opposition should listen to the experts on this matter who are saying targets are not to blame, what we need is investment and reform in the health service and only this side can do it."

This approach is part of the government's strategy to unpick Tory policies they forced the Conservatives to reveal in the run-up to the election that never was.

Expect to hear much more of the Tory "spending black hole".

Cameron seemed a bit flustered and said: "If the prime minister wants to ask me questions - call an election." Brown had not asked him a question, and the way the line fell flat indicated it was very "last week".

The Tory leader then rather clumsily tried to link the NHS to calls for a referendum on the EU treaty.

Brown deftly picked up on the change of tack and observed Cameron had "given up on the NHS."

However Brown was not as convincing on the question of a referendum as he was on the NHS, and it does not help the government's position that Cameron can quote criticism from the Labour dominated European scrutiny committee and Labour MP Gisela Stuart.

Cameron asked where Stuart was and decided she had been "sent for re-education," for saying the "red lines are red herrings. If Labour can't trust the people why should the people trust Labour". With friends like that, who needs Conservatives.

Then it was stand-in Lib Dem leader Vince Cable's turn and Brown used the opportunity to compliment Sir Menzies. Indeed so fulsome was the praise that the Tory benches yelled at the prime minister to "give him a job".

Cable asked Brown: "Why has he crafted an inheritance tax system that discriminates against millions of unmarried couples and their children and why is he lining up with the Tories on the principal that these families should not only be condemned to the everlasting flames of hell but should be taxed more on the way?"

In his one intervention Cable demonstrated why he is as widely respected as Sir Menzies, and perhaps Brown will offer them both jobs one day.

The Verdict

Gordon Brown: 7/10 - A marked improvement but would be well advised to drop the attempted jokes and act the serious statesman.

David Cameron: 7/10 - Unconvincing on the NHS but on firmer ground harrying the PM on the lack of a referendum on the EU treaty.

Vince Cable: 7/10 - A witty, understated and clever question and some will regret that he has ruled himself out of trying to secure the job on a permanent basis.

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