The deputising Harriet Harman slipped in a neat riposte to William Hague during PMQs when she said: “His reversing is even worse than mine” – a reference to her spot of bother down in Peckham a few weeks back. Clearly she thought she should make the joke before Hague did.
She was less sure-footed when David Jones, a Tory MP, quoted the famous Mandelson quote about Labour being “intensely relaxed” about people getting “filthy rich”. In this light how did she feel about the commercial success of the former PM – ie Tony Blair?
Harman’s reply – something about Labour standing for social mobility – was treated with more than a little scepticism. Blair’s origins were far from humble; he was born into a comfortable family and studied at Fettes and Oxford.
As Andrew Grice points out: even the Labour front bench were laughing.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey