PMQs as-it-happened

PMQs as-it-happened

PMQs as-it-happened

11.30 – Welcome to our live blog for the second prime minister's questions since the summer break.

The clash comes as new employment figures give succour to the government's claims that the economy is "turning the corner".

However it also comes as business secretary Vince Cable questions whether the economy is yet "out of the tunnel."

Ed Miliband has had a series of poorly received performances in the last two weeks. He will be looking to do much better today.

I'll be updating the live blog with all the action from the chamber.

11.53 – Labour and the Tories are already having a dry-run of today's PMQs on the Daily Politics.

Labour MP Chris Leslie doesn't want to talk about today's unemployment figures and the Tory MP doesn't want to talk about Vince Cable.

Expect more of the same from Cameron and Miliband.

11.56 – We've just heard that Tory MP Nigel Evans is to make a statement in the chamber after PMQs following his arrest and charges for a series of sexual offences. Stay tuned for that.

11.59 – What will Miliband go on? Delays to universal credit? Vince Cable's comments? We'll find out in just a minute.

12.00 – And we're off. First question is from Annette Brooke about humanitarian aid for Syria. Cameron says he's working towards a potential UN resolution.

12.03 – "Today's fall in unemployment is welcome" says Miliband unconvincingly, and then points to youth unemployment which isn't.

Cameron says "there must be no complacency" echoing Vince Cable's comments earlier.

12.05 – Miliband says "the chancellor went out and claimed he'd saved the economy. Total complacency, and total hubris." He claims Osborne has "choked off the recovery"

12.06 – Cameron says all Miliband's predictions have turned out to be wrong. Miliband again accuses Cameron of "total complacency". This is his catchphrase for the day.

12.07 – Cameron much less angry than last week which followed his defeat on the Syria motion and is much more effective as a result.

12.08 – Cameron tries to stand up before Miliband has finished. "His speeches are so poor that it's difficult to know when he's finished," he says adding that "he went to Bournemouth and he bottled it."

12.10 – Miliband asks about Michael Gove's comments on poor people and food banks. Cameron ignores the question and replies about Miliband not having any policies instead. Miliband tries again and calls Gove a "disgrace."

12.12 – Cameron not biting. He says Gove is "delivering" then switches back to talk about Miliband and the unions instead.

Here comes the soundbite his team will have been working on all morning. You can almost hear it galloping down the aisle towards the despatch box. Cameron delivers it apropros of nothing. "We were told it would be Raging Bull and he gave us Chicken Run," says Cameron to synthetic laughter from the Tory benches.

12.17 – Cameron asked by Labour MP Gloria De Piero about bank bonuses. He instead answers a question that somebody else asked De Piero on Twitter about Ed Miliband. Understand why? No me neither.

12.20 – Tory MP Gavin Barwell asks whether Cameron will meet him to discuss Labour's terrible record on the economy. Even this doesn't get a straight answer.

12.22 – Lots of question from the Tory benches about how brilliantly the economy is recovering under Cameron. Cameron happy to agree.

12.23 – Similarly lots of questions about government "complacency" from the Labour benches. The whole session feels like it was written in advance, which in many ways it was.

12.24 – Will Cameron take responsiblity for the "living standards crisis" in Britain asks a forgettable member of the Labour benches. Amazingly Cameron says he won't.

12.25 – A more intersting question from Labour's Stella Creasy about the death of Tyrell Matthews-Burton in Crete. Cameron agrees to meet the family.

12.28 – The opposition have "got it comprehensively wrong over the past few years" says Cameron in almost identical terms to almost every other answer he has given today.

12.29 – Cameron asked by Lib Dem MP to condemn Israel for the "ethnic cleansing" of Bedouin. Cameron says he condemns the Israeli settlements.

12.30 – Last question goes to George Galloway who is now making more regular appearances in the chamber. He asks Cameron whether Syria crisis shows that "jaw jaw is better than war war"? Cameron replies that it shows us that we shouldn't be "crawling up to dictators and telling them how wonderful they are."

12.33 – Snap verdict: We always give these exchanges a score, so I will put it as 1-0 to David Cameron. But only because he was marginally more succesful than Ed Miliband at making the same banal point many times over, regardless of what he was asked.

12.40 – Slightly less snappy verdict: it was a long summer break, so it now feels like an awful long time since Ed Miliband was last able to get Cameron seriously rattled at PMQs. Cameron looked pretty comfortable during the exchanges and is quite happy to make his pre-prepared points about Labour, no matter what question comes up. Miliband needs to adapt his strategy if he is going to find a way through.

12.45 – Nigel Evans has just made an emotional statement to a very silent house. He says that he will "robustly" defend himself against the charges. He also says that he will not retain the Tory whip but will continue as an independent MP. He says that he feels like he is "in limbo." More follows…

12.55 – My colleague Alex Stevenson has just written up a sketch on Nigel Evans statement.  According to Stevenson: "His tone was one of a man going through a mighty ordeal, prepared to take Churchill's advice that when you're going through hell, "keep going". This is undoubtedly a tough period for Evans, guilty or not." 

12.56 – More reaction to PMQs from Alex: "Ever since Cameron held that barbecue before the summer recess [Tory MPs] have grown much fonder of their prime minister. Even if they do have to hand him humiliating defeats over foreign interventions every so often."

12.59 – And that's it from me. There won't be any PMQs for the next few weeks due to the party conferences. See you in a few weeks' time for more of the same.