ePolitix.com - PMQs - The Verdict

From foot and mouth to terror attacks, the summer saw new prime minister Gordon Brown convince the country he was the best person to deal with a crisis.

Unfortunately for Labour the confidence this gave Brown and his advisers led them to engineer a monumental political crisis of their own.

In less than a fortnight they have managed to unite a fractious Conservative Party and help them have a highly successful conference; turn a 10 point poll lead into a three point deficit; damage Brown's hard-won reputation, perhaps irreparably; annoy some high-profile journalists, and be caught red-handed stealing Tory and Liberal Democrat policies.

And so it was with this background that Brown took his place in the chamber for the first prime minister's questions since the recess.

David Cameron's warm up act was Bob Neil, a colourful London Tory, who asked the PM to praise Bromley council's record on recycling and offered to show Brown "one of our bottle banks."

The Tory benches loved this and bayed for "more" whilst Brown muttered something about the environment in the spending settlement.

Labour MP David Kidney tried to buy his boss some time asking as long a question about the postal strikes as the Speaker would let him get away with.

But then it was David Cameron's turn, and he hammered away at Brown's trustworthiness from beginning to end.

He asked whether Brown expected anyone to believe that the prime minister would not have called an election, as he asserts, if the polls had showed he would have gained a 100 seat majority.

Assuming - very generously - that it is true, it would mean that the feverish speculation and self-inflicted damage was entirely unnecessary.

Brown said "he would take no lectures" from a politician who had changed his mind on grammar schools, VAT on airfares and the minimum wage.

"He is the first prime minister to flunk an election because he thought he was going to win it," mocked Cameron, going on to ridicule Brown's tome entitled "Courage", asking if he "realised what a phoney he now looks?"

Brown said that the lack of "clamour" for an early election was proved by the fact that only 23 people had signed a Downing Street petition calling for one, and that his government was getting on with focusing on improving housing, health and education, which is what people were really interested in.

The Conservative leader then asked if proposals on inheritance tax, non domicile tax arrangements and green aviation tax were in the comprehensive spending review before the Tory conference.

Brown drew attention to the fact that inheritance tax exemption levels had been raised many times since 1997 and that the Tory's non dom figures did not add up, but in the end he was drowned out by Conservative jeers.

Cameron finished his barnstorming performance by linking the failure to have a referendum on the EU constitution to the issue of trust, ensuring that Brown's rough patch continues into next week's European summit and beyond.

"Never have the British people been treated with such cynicism," Cameron said.

The prime minister said that the Labour government had negotiated a good deal for Britain when the treaty was being drawn, up unlike the Tories at Maastricht - on which there was no referendum.

In a final stinging attack Cameron said: "For 10 years he has plotted and schemed to have this job and for what? No conviction just calculation, no vision just a vacuum, last week he lost his political authority, this week he's losing his moral authority, how long are we going to have to wait before the past makes way for the future?"

Needless to say the Conservative benches loved it and could have hardly believe their change in fortunes after a dreadful summer for the party.

In contrast the Labour benches were sullen and could manage only cursory support as the prime minister sought to defend himself by pointing to Tory flip-flopping on old chestnuts like Bank of England independence.

It was not just Tory ideas that appeared in Alistair Darling's statement on Tuesday - there were also several Liberal Democrat proposals, and Sir Menzies Campbell asked the prime minister if he would also "steal" his party's proposals on cutting the lowest rate of income tax and abolishing council tax to help the middle classes and the poor.

The basic rate of income tax was being cut, Brown said, and he refused to adopt any measures that "jeopardised" the country's finances.

After a ghastly weekend Brown's week has not got much better with a hostile grilling by journalists, a difficult session of the Parliamentary Labour Party and then his worst PMQs thus far - he must just hope that the storm will now blow over.

The Verdict

Gordon Brown - 5/10 - Having made so many mistakes recently, absorbing the blows was always going to be the best he could do.

David Cameron - 9/10 - Cleverly drew together recent events into a narrative about trust and linked to the EU referendum to ensure the story continues.

Sir Menzies Campbell - 6/10 - Struggling to make himself heard, and has some leadership and poll questions of his own to answer.

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