DAVID LLOYD George, nearly 90 years ago, was the last Liberal to take prime minister’s questions, that is until yesterday when Nick Clegg filled in for David Cameron and enjoyed it so much that he could not stop himself lecturing his opponent at the despatch box.
Following his rise to become leader of the Lib Dems in 2007, Mr Clegg was subjected to mockery and baiting by all bar his own MPs when he stood to question Labour’s Gordon Brown.
Yesterday it was different. “This is the first time a Liberal leader has been in this position since the 1920s,” Mr Clegg, with obvious pride, told his despatch box opponent, Labour’s Jack Straw, who was filling in for the party’s acting leader, Harriet Harman.
“Given great longevity in politics, that was probably around the time he first joined a Labour shadow cabinet,” Mr Clegg told Mr Straw, who insisted to cries of “stay” from Conservative and Lib Dem MPs, that this was likely to “be my one and only appearance in this position”.
Unhappy with taunts from the Labour benches, the Speaker, John Bercow, demanded calm: “I can see members ranting at the tops of their voices at the deputy prime minister. It is wrong, and it must stop. Whatever the feeling, it must stop. The public detest it and so do I.”
Still irked by memories of his treatment in the days before power, Mr Clegg interjected: “If the right honourable gentleman thinks that is a lot of noise, he should try it from the bench I formerly occupied – it is even worse.”
Like every other prime minister’s questions in recent years, proceedings began with the naming of Britain’s most recent war dead in Afghanistan: Marine Jonathan Crookes, Senior Aircraftman Kinikki Griffiths, Sgt David Monkhouse and Sgt Brett Linley.
“They were, of course, men of great courage and selflessness who died in the service of our country, and their sacrifice will not be forgotten,” said the deputy prime minister.
British troops will not stay indefinitely in Afghanistan, he said, insisting that all will be out of combat roles by 2015 – a point he emphasised during exchanges with Mr Straw, who had queried whether the pledge was conditional on circumstances.
Mr Clegg also accused Mr Straw of complicity in “the illegal invasion of Iraq”. A Downing Street spokesman later insisted that Mr Clegg’s remarks were not government policy.
By now, the Labour stand-in was making little headway with the Lib Dem, whose confidence was growing – particularly after he received an encouraging pat from Conservative chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne.
In the face of another volley from Mr Straw, Mr Clegg sighed: “Thank heavens this is the last occasion on which will be at the dispatch box in this capacity. It seems to me that he needs to go away and practise a bit more.”
Labour, however, is betting that Mr Clegg’s career will end like that of Lloyd George, who after leading Britain to victory in the first World War could have been “dictator for life” but went on to see his Liberal/Conservative alliance collapse just years later.
And he never got back. – (Additional reporting: PA)