Politics

PMQs: Labour are re-energised

October 23, 2013
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The weather has changed—across the country, but also in Westminster. This summer, the Prime Minister was in a bullish mood. The economy was picking up, Labour seemed in disarray, Ed was looking weak and the heatwave combined with multiple sporting success had brought a mood of national optimism. How long ago that must now seem. Ed Miliband has, since then, begun to look a much more substantial figure—it is he, and not the PM, who is currently making the political weather.

Today's Prime Minister's Questions was dominated by the issue of energy prices, a subject thrust forward by Miliband in his speech to the Labour conference, in which he promised to cap energy bills. That suggestion was taken up yesterday by John Major, the former PM, who suggested to lobby journalists that he felt Miliband was thinking in the right direction on energy—a greater gift for the leader of the Opposition it is hard to imagine.

Miliband's first question to the PM got right to it: "how does he feel now that the red peril has claimed Sir John Major?" The PM replied that "I do believe in interfering in the energy market," a volte-face of significant proportions, which got the Labour benches jeering very loudly. Ed then rubbed the PM's face in it, by noting that Sir John was a Conservative leader who had "won a majority, unlike this one."

Cameron then showed how pressurised he has now become on the subject of energy prices, saying that "we need to roll back some of the green regulations," that currently add to consumers' bills and at this, the Labour benches roared, the shouts deafening. The Government benches sat still in all of this, unmoving, the volley of voices directed only in one direction, aside from that of Cameron, who shouted back at Labour, his words mainly lost in the melee.

Cameron accused Ed of being weak, of being in office as the Secretary of State for Energy in the time when the big six energy companies came to dominate UK power supply, that Miliband's suggestion that he can control prices is a "cynical ploy, and that while John Major was a good man, Ed was acting like a "con man." The use of this last epithet caused the Speaker to intervene, calling the term "unparliamentary," and "a bit below the level." Questions over, Cameron left the Chamber, fast.

A government spokesman afterwards set out details of how the government plans to get at the energy market, although in the typical style of the spokesman, the details were scant. What can be said is that the Office for Fair Trading and the Competition and Markets Authority are being brought in to examine the industry, and to investigate the profits made and prices charged. More information will follow in the coming weeks.

Another spokesman was asked about the rolling back of green taxes, and in answering, he broke the spin doctors' No.1 rule—he said something interesting. "One way or another," he said, "the PM is determined," to roll back green taxes, a statement that made the assembled press pack whistle at its candour. But I thought you were meant to be the greenest government ever, noted one journalist. The spokesman answered "we are," in a voice so thin as to be barely audible. And if green taxes are dropped, where will the fall in tax revenue be made up—by raising taxes elsewhere? Which ones? No answer. More details will come in the following weeks.

The Grangemouth Oil refinery in Scotland closed today, with the loss of 800 jobs. Energy prices are high and going even higher. Labour was either very lucky, or very clever in picking energy policy as its line of attack earlier this autumn. It is showing discipline in sticking tightly to its message. This morning's YouGov poll showed Labour up on 40 per cent, an eight point lead over the Conservatives.

The weather has changed—the PM's heatwave summer seems a very distant memory.