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By Ned Simons - 13th January 2011
Labour MPs got their joke books out for Vince Cable this afternoon, hoping to score points based on his comments made to undercover reporters over Christmas.
The business secretary was making his first appearance at the despatch box since Daily Telegraph journalists posing as constituents recorded him criticising his Conservative coalition partners, including a warning that he could deploy the "nuclear option" of quitting the coalition if he was unhappy.
MPs have had a long time to work on their one-liners and shadow business secretary John Denham told the Commons that Cable was "hanging onto his job by a thread, waiting for the prime minister to cut it".
Labour backbencher Tom Watson said MPs would have noticed the business secretary's "remarkable transformation from Chairman Mao to Mr Has-been"
"How is he enjoying the long march of government?" Watson asked.
While Ochil & South Perthshire MP Gordon Banks asked whether Cable would "use his nuclear option" to clamp down on unacceptable bankers bonuses or would the celebrity Strictly Come Dancing star "dance away" from the issue.
Treasury committee member Chuka Umunna said the government now had a business secretary "in office, but increasingly out of power".
Cable dismissed Denham's attack as a "bit stale" as he had clearly been "trying to polish that intervention for the last three weeks".
And he said Watson's quip must have been the "tenth repetition of that particular joke" and was "nothing like as good" as his original gag in which he observed Gordon Brown's transformation from "Stalin to Mr Bean".
Despite Labour's best comedy efforts, Cable got the biggest laugh when he wryly told East Ham MP Stephen Timms that he could not answer his question as he would have to direct it to the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
The Lib Dem secretary of state was stripped of his responsibilities for media competition by the prime minister after telling undercover reporters he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch - the portfolio was then handed to Conservative culture secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Cable also told MPs that the "precise allocation" of ministerial responsibilities between his business department and DCMS would be set out in a written statement soon.
Speaking later on this morning the Leader of the House of Commons Sir George Young criticised the Telegraph reporters for posing as consituents.
"Members should be concerned about the tactics used," he said.
Sir George said the methods risked damaging the relationship between constituents and MPs and did not seem like "responsible journalism"
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