In his first official grilling of U.K. prime minister David Cameron in parliament, new opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn chose an entirely new strategy of asking questions – crowdsourcing them from the public.
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Political observers will be watching how Corbyn, who was elected by a landslide over the weekend, matches up against the prime minister in the bear pit of “PMQs” and for clues as to his leadership style.
Just before the beginning of the 30 minute session, a still shocked parliamentary Labour party was silent as Mr Corbyn, who received the wholehearted backing of only a handful of them, entered the chamber.
But later a Labour Party spokesman said: “What he meant was that “taking part fully” would include singing the anthem”.
Mr Cameron defended the Tory record, saying it had delivered record numbers of affordable and council houses but “much more needs to be done”, before extolling his policies including Help to Buy.
Newly-appointed shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy said Mr Corbyn should have sung the anthem to “avoid all the fuss”.
“I want to thank to the enormous democratic exercise that took place that allowed me to become the Labour party leader”, said Corbyn in his opening statement in parliament”.
Mr Cameron clashed angrily with the SNP’s Westminster Leader, Angus Robertson, telling him the SNP were “frit” and shouting “you” – momentarily forgetting the Commons convention of referring to members in the third person. The other questions were on cuts to tax credits and mental health services.
Mr Corbyn has said next year’s Scottish Parliament election will be one of his top priorities after Labour’s disastrous general election defeat in Scotland at the hands of the SNP in May.
“We won’t be able to afford a strong NHS without a strong economy”.
Asked whether he should have agreed to sing the anthem despite being a republican, she said: “I think it would have been appropriate and right and respectful of people’s feelings to have done so”.
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“I cannot envisage any circumstances where I would be campaigning alongside those who would argue for us to leave; Jeremy has made it clear to me that he does not wholeheartedly share this view”.
