Ed Miliband Impresses In His PMQs Debut

It was Ed Miliband's first prime minister's questions, and he wasn't bad at all. This clearly came as a surprise to many of his backbenchers, who've been chuntering on for weeks about union members foisting on them a lefty.

It all began politely enough, with Cameron offering good wishes and hoping, sarcastically, that Miliband would have "many, many years" in the job.

Then we were off. Cameron pointed out that £1bn was being raised from the 15% of higher-rate taxpayers. What was unfair about that?

"I may be new to this game," said Miliband, "but I think that I ask the questions and he gives the answers." He had a Cameron quote: before the election he had declared himself against means-testing child benefit.

"I agree with the prime minister," said Miliband. "Why doesn't he?"

That last one left the PM momentarily silenced, shaking his head with amused interest in the way his new opponent approached PMQs. He had the last word, as is traditional, and deployed his prepared line about Ed, like his former master, being all tactics and political positioning: “it’s not Red, it’s Brown”.

This is merely the first outing. What matters is that Ed Miliband acquited himself by remaining calm and showing that he can cut it at this level. On that basis he succeeded on his PMQs debut, but this is just the beginning of the battle between Miliband and Cameron.