Jeremy Corbyn displayed a new-found sassiness at Prime Minister’s Questions – cutting down the Prime Minister with a series of one-liners as he went on the attack over cuts to tax credits and the chronic shortage of housing.
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Today was the second time David Cameron got a grilling from the public via Jeremy Corbyn.
The Labour leader switched topics and said he had received 3,500 emails on the subject of housing, including from “Matthew” who was struggling with high rents in London but could not afford to buy a home. Kelly’s question was: how much will I lose in tax credits?
Cameron insisted the “national living wage” would give people a £20-a-week pay rise, and Kelly would also benefit from a rise in the income tax threshold and more free childcare.
Corbyn says people in work rely on tax credits to make ends meet.
Amid heckling from the Labour benches, Mr Cameron questioned “what happened to the new approach?”
But Corbyn still isn’t using PMQs, his best parliamentary platform, to change the political weather. But many Labour backbenchers didn’t seem to have got the memo.
Prime Minister’s Questions was dominated by tax credits and the Labour U-turn on backing George Osborne’s plans to reduce the deficit.
And Corbyn himself wasn’t averse to the odd jibe in Cameron’s direction. Corbyn combined this with a few old-style put downs-mockingly declaring that “The Prime Minister is doing his best, and I admire that” and saying, “could I bring the Prime Minister back to reality”- to turn in a more effective performance.
She works full-time for £7.20 an hour, Mr Corbyn said.
A young man called Matthew sent in a question asking the Prime Minister if he really thought homes costing £450,000 could really be considered “affordable”.
The PM says he wants £450k to be the most expensive a starter home should be.
He asked the prime minister: “The last five years have seen a low level of housebuilding, less than half the new buildings that are actually needed, it has seen rapidly rising rents, rising homelessness therefore also a higher housing benefit bill”.
For his last question, Corbyn asked Cameron to make sure data on secondary breast cancer was being properly collected and centralised.
‘But there’s a time and a place for it and it’s certainly not right to do anything that would embarrass the Queen by needlessly politicising a ceremonial event when there will be ample opportunity to raise these issues in private meetings with officials.
Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said he was seeking such meetings but it is unclear whether he will be granted one, or any time with the president. “He didn’t ask all questions from crowdsourcing, he followed it up with a few questions”, he said. He said: “It is a plus one – who the plus one is, I don’t know”.
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During a week-long visit to China last month, Chancellor George Osborne said he addressed the issue of human rights privately “in the context of talking about issues like economic development” – a stance applauded by the Chinese state media.
