Ed Miliband falls foul of leaked PMQs briefing

Is it just the Mole, or do we all think Ed Miliband needs to raise his game a little? It hasn't been a great week for Ed, just 30 days into the job.

First, the economic indicators have played into George Osborne's hands, with stronger than predicted third-quarter GDP figures appearing to suggest that the Iron Chancellor might be doing something right.

Then the political editor of the Times got hold of a secret briefing note offering the Labour leader hints on how to upstage David Cameron at PMQs - and published it in today's paper.

The leaked memo was a delicious mix of obvious advice and dirty tricks that only a team of Westminster spin-doctors could come up with.

It urged Miliband to use memorable "cheer lines" - another word for soundbites - to ensure TV news coverage. "Mocking humour is particularly useful here," the memo went on, "especially if it strikes a chord with Tory backbenchers to silence them."

It suggested Miliband could make the PM appear "evasive" by asking him simple questions that he would struggle to answer.

The memo also pointed up some of the PM's perceived weaknesses - a tendency to "answer in generalities", to be patronising and to resort to "practised anger" - and suggested Miliband might exploit these traits.

What Ed didn't see coming was that, because of the Times leak, Cameron had read the memo too.

The PM quoted from it at the end of question time and it didn't take much to have the last laugh. Said Cameron: "He [Miliband] has got a plan for PMQs but he has got no plan for the economy, no plan for the debt and no plan for the mess they [Labour] made."

Guffaws and 'hear, hears' all round. ·