PMQs 26th October 2011: As It Happened

PMQs 26th October 2011

It was no ordinary PMQs - it's the week of the 50th anniversary of the regular parliamentary custom, where the prime minister of the day takes questions from MPs.

Shortly after David Cameron is heading off to the EU meetings, where the prospects of a deal to bailout European banks and rescue the Euro are not looking good.

It was first time the PM had been in the Chamber since the massive rebellion by 81 Tory MPs on Monday night over whether to hold a referendum on the UK's future in the EU. However as it happened there was only one probing Tory Eurosceptic question during the session on Wednesday.

Ed Miliband avoided the findings of the leaked report at Number 10, which calls for the rules on sacking workers to be relaxed.

Instead the Labour leader repeatedly pressed the PM on what the official government position was of repatriation of powers from the EU - the Tories seem to want it, the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has poured cold water on it - who's right?

Ed Miliband didn't get any concrete answers on that, but was attacked by David Cameron for previous comments Miliband had made, where he'd been enthusiastic about joining the Euro and leaving the IMF.

All in all, a fairly tame PMQs - but with one feature that everyone can agree is positive; this was the first time in weeks and weeks that the PM didn't start with tributes to service personnel killed in Afghanistan. In the past seven days, this hasn't happened.

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