Yes, the follow-up about tax credits was pointed but it hasn’t moved the debate on.
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This was a calmer, more assured performance from Jeremy Corbyn.
He said he had 2,000 questions about tax credits from the public.
We heard about the plight of Kelly, a single mum who works more than 40 hours a week but relies on tax credits to keep her head above water.
This is hard territory for David Cameron and it showed. But, revealingly, Cameron rather swerved the question when asked when he knew about Lord Ashcroft’s non-dom status.
He did tell MPs he had got a free copy of the book. He wonders who was “telling porkies?”
Mr Cameron said he had a similar meeting, and added: “We all know people who had the tragedy of having breast cancer and one can only imagine what it must be like to recover and survive breast cancer in a primary sense but then to find out you have a secondary cancer, often a secondary cancer that is completely incurable”.
He asked if apprenticeship funding for Scotland will be another “pig in a poke” from this so-called one-nation government.
Corbyn, noting the change in tone from the Conservative leader since their last PMQs, quipped: “The prime minister is doing his best and I admire that”.
It’s a question he has refused to answer before and refused to answer properly again.
The Prime Minister will attend the banquet, but it is unclear if Samantha Cameron will accompany him.
Christopher Hope of the Daily Telegraph said: “Some of our Lobby meetings with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman are more spikey than this”. The spokesman: “He will take a full part”. Unfortunately it’s still nowhere near enough to make up for those that have been sold off. Labour MP John Mann tweeted: ‘If Jeremy Corbyn is able to raise human rights with the Chinese president next week that would be very appropriate and timely’.
Corbyn comes back with a question on housing, from Matthew. There was laughter from the Government benches.
The most a “starter home” in London would cost would be £400,000, he added.
“The system of taking money away from people and giving it back to them in tax credits wasn’t working”.
“What the campaigners are asking for is better information, not least because they want to make sure we are spreading the best practice in every hospital so we really do treat people as quickly as we possibly can”.
Jeremy Corbyn opens with a question from Kelly, a single mum of a disabled child.
Two questions in and we’ve got our first mention of the Long Term Economic Plan, in a delightfully planted question from Tory Karl McCartney.
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 added: “I think people want a more honest politics and that is coming from the top of the party”.
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Corbyn’s spokesman also signalled that the Labour leader would sing the national anthem at the state banquet. The first People’s Question Time went down well with the public, and Corbyn managed to score a few points with his crowd-sourced questions.
