And it was again time

The questions were:

1. In opposition, the Prime Minister said, “Where the taxpayer owns a large stake in a bank, we are saying that no employee should be paid a bonus of more than £2000.” Can the Prime Minister update us on the progress of this promise?

2. Let me say – The country is getting fed up with the Prime Minister’s pathetic excuses on the banks. He made a clear promise: no bank bonus over £2000. It’s still on the Conservative website. It’s a promise broken. He can’t answer a question about bankers’ bonuses. Let’s try a question on the bankers’ tax. Can he explain to the British people to explain why he does he think it is fair and reasonable to be cutting taxes in the banks when he is increasing taxes for everyone else?

3. He just needs to look at p.91 Office for Budget Responsibility report published in November last year. Labour’s payroll tax on the banks raised £3.5 bn in addition to the corporation tax that they pay. His corporation levy is just raising. £1.2 bn. In anyone’s terms, that’s raising less money and a tax cut for the banks. Why doesn’t the Prime Minister just admit it?

4. That is the closest we get to an admission from the Prime Minister that the Conservatives are cutting taxes this year. The OBR is very clear. Now – he can’t answer on bonuses or taxes, and so we move on transparency. He should listen to the Business Secretary. We know the Business Secretary is not a man to mess with, he is a man ‘with a nuclear weapon in his pocket, and he’s not afraid to it’. He said, “if you keep things in the dark, you go fungus”. He wasn’t talking about the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for once. Why doesn’t the Prime Minister listen to his Business Secretary.

5. You know he’s got no answers when he starts asking me the questions.He is now in the absurd position of being a defender of the banks than ever the banks themselves. Steven Hester, the Chief Executive of RBS went before the Select Committee just before Christmas, said that if the Walker report is implemented, “I would have no problem with it”. The Prime Minister has had eight months to hold them to account. When’s he going to start?

6. And what was he saying during that time? Deregulate the banks more! So this is life in 2011 for Planet Cameron. One rule for the banks, and one rule for anyone else. His Health Minister says in the privacy of his surgery, “I don’t want you to trust David Cameron. He has values I don’t share.” We have a Health Secretary who knows he’s out of touch, and now because of his failure on the banks, we have a country that knows he’s out of touch.

David Cameron’s jokes and insults were bad. This week they revolved around:

• Wallace and Gromit
• Alan Johnson not being able to count (5 times)
• getting Ed Miliband to focus on a television career
• “he just knows that this isn’t working“
• Even the Shadow Chancellor can agree that 2.5 is bigger than 2.3, and 9 is bigger than 2.
• “No one will ever trust Labour on banking or the economy”