Many observers are likely to find significance in David Cameron’s backing of the “excellent” William Hague during today’s prime minister’s questions; the comments come after rumblings in Westminster about the foreign secretary’s future.
As we wrote this morning:
“Mr Hague’s position has been undermined by his response to the Libyan crisis, starting with the Foreign Office’s initial inability to arrange flights to rescue British nationals and confusion over the viability of a no-fly zone.”
Cameron’s put-down of Ed Miliband was hugely effective:
“There’s only one person I remember here knifing a foreign secretary (David Miliband) and I think I’m looking at him.”
He then went on to quote David Miliband from his speech last night, in which Mili-D said “the left is losing elections on an unprecedented scale because it’s lost control of the political agenda…and it has a deficit of ideas”. “He’s absolutely right,” said Cameron.
The Labour leader hit back with a rather good line of his own, which may or may not have been pre-prepared: that Cameron thought he was “born to rule but not very good at it“. But today’s PMQs was a victory for the prime minister on points.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey