My PMQs verdict
PMQs -Verdict from the Twitter commentariat
1.40pm BST
This is what journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs on Twitter.
PM says "I am happy with my team and looking at his shadow chancellor I am happy with his too." A palpable hit for Cameron on Miliband #PMQs
Really don't understand Ed going so hard on reshuffle. Allowed Cam some great lines, and is a bubble issue. #pmqs
Last #PMQs before summer recess hands @David_Cameron a 4-2 win over @Ed_Miliband http://t.co/OXJnRh6dIn pic.twitter.com/Dux4ci2DjY
Cameron looks very confident today. Tory MPs roar. Labour benches more or less silent.
Ambush on Harman middle-class tax hikes comment hands #pmqs win to Cameron....after Miliband fluffs Gove attack
#PMQs review: Cameron's tax attack sinks Miliband http://t.co/pcXvubiyww
Topsy turvy pmqs -@Ed_Miliband had PM right where he wanted at first and then let him off. @David_Cameron right back on top at the end.
Labour still beat Tories 9 v 7 women on frontbench #pmqs #reshuffle
Cabinet promotions or not, I can't help being reminded looking down at PMQs how few Tory MPs are women...
Documentary cameras are in the chamber today. MPs not braying quite as loudly as usual. #pmqs
PM always used to have 3 women sitting behind him at #pmqs. Now it's 1 woman 2 men - to reassure men post-reshuffle he cares about them too?
Miliband's "cost-of-living" attack has endured far longer than many expected. #PMQs
Not sure about Charles Kennedy's glasses #PMQs pic.twitter.com/nfECMBd50n
Will Labour rule out raising taxes on middle earners? If not, this Tory attack line will dog them through the election. #PMQs
The thing that completely changed PMQs around was the PM goading Ed M into switching onto the economy. Dictating terms; worrying for Labour.
Re Harriet Harman's #PMQs tax comments row, this isn't the first time that she has got herself in a muddle http://t.co/M5a1xsxFBu
David Cameron's Gove answer at PMQs is the daftest insult to everyone's intelligence since Gordon Brown on the non-election of 2007.
Cameron answers by explaining his reshuffle and talking up Gove. Not sure that worked as a tactic from Miliband #PMQs
Another example of why Miliband shouldn't always the sixth question
1.21pm BST
PMQs Verdict: The smoke is starting to clear. We now know rather more about what Harriet Harman did and did not say on LBC yesterday than we did at 12.13pm when the exchanges between David Cameron and Ed Miliband came to an end. Although I'm prepared to accept that what Harman said was theoretically ambiguous (see 12.42pm), no honest journalists would have written that up as a call for Labour to raise taxes on people on middle incomes because, when reporting politics, it is important to pay attention to what people mean as well as what they say, and it is fairly clear that Harman was just defending progressive taxation.
So, in one sense, this is just a 30-minute fuss about nothing. But it is also indicative of exactly how the Conservatives intend to fight Labour between now and the general election; by running a classic "Labour will raise your taxes" scare. (For another good example, take a look again at the opening of the Queen's speech debate in June.) Miliband's problem is that he has not got a robust response and, despite what people tell pollsters about being willing to pay more to fund the NHS, the New Labour credo about it being impossible for a tax-raising party to win an election is probably a sound one.
12.49pm BST
Labour sources are accusing David Cameron of being "deeply dishonest" and "lying" about what Harriet Harman was saying on LBC. She was not advocating higher taxes for people on middle incomes, they say.
12.45pm BST
On the Daily Politics Labour's Liz Kendall has just been asked about the Harman quote. Kendall said Harman was just defending progressive taxation.
12.42pm BST
Those helpful people from CCHQ have now send out the Harriet Harman quote that David Cameron used earlier. It is from her new LBC phone in. Here is the full transcript. The Tories have highlighted one sentence on bold.
Questioner: I would like to know what you are going to do to help the middle classes of England, Britain. I really do feel the middle class contribute the most and take out the least. I will be honest I am a staunch Conservative, hand on heart but if Labour came up with one policy that would genuinely help me out I would vote for them.
Iain Dale: Like what?
12.33pm BST
Asked when he will publish his tax returns, Cameron repeats what Harriet Harman said about middle-income people paying more. The only party with a tax problem is Labour, he says.
And that's it. I'll post a summary shortly.
12.31pm BST
Richard Ottaway, a Conservative, asks about the assisted dying bill in the Lords tomorrow. Does Cameron agree that MPs should debate this too.
Cameron says it is good a debate is being held. It will be worth reading it. He would be happy to have a debate here, he says. MPs can arranged for debates in the Commons. The new Commons leader, William Hague, is listening. But Cameron says, for himself, he would not want to move toward legalising euthanasia.
12.29pm BST
Labour's Ian Lucas asks about specialist spinal cord injury beds. Why are these beds at Stoke Mandeville being used for patients without spinal injuries?
Cameron says decisions like this are matters for particular trusts.
12.28pm BST
Labour's Julie Elliott says the government has got it wrong on tuition fees.
Cameron says record numbers are going to university, including from low-income backgrounds, despite what Labour predicted. The government is removing the cap on the numbers that can go to university. That is the aspiration society the government wants to build, he says.
12.26pm BST
Anne Marie Morris, a Conservative, asks if Cameron agrees there should be a better funding formula for rural councils, like hers in Devon.
Cameron says the government has announced road and rail schemes for the south west. He will look at the funding issue.
12.25pm BST
Labour's Joan Walley asks if the Treasury will fund in full changes to the NHS in north Staffordshire.
Cameron says he is following the situation in Staffordshire very closely. Changes there need to take place, he says.
12.24pm BST
Cameron says it is "striking" that the US has 100,000 fracking wells dug, but Europe has only about 100. Fracking is vital for the future of our country, he says.
12.23pm BST
I wonder if it's a coincidence that the #reshuffle disgruntled @LiamFoxMP and Owen Paterson are standing together v conspicuously at PMQs.
12.23pm BST
Labour's Dan Jarvis asks Cameron if he will support the Lights Out campaign, encouraging people to turn lights out on 4 August to remember the centenary of the first world war.
Cameron says he agrees. Another important event will be the reopening of the Imperial War Museum tomorrow.
12.22pm BST
Labour's Pat McFadden asks what portfolio he hopes Lord Hill will get in Brussels.
Cameron says every MP should pay tribute to Cathy Ashton for the work she did as the EU's foreign minister. There is now an opportunity for Britain to get an important portfolio, in the areas it cares about most, like the economy. Hill, like Ashton, was leader of the Lords before going to Brussels.
12.20pm BST
Julian Smith, a Conservative, asks about today's small business bill.
Cameron says the government wants to make Britain the best place to start a small business.
12.19pm BST
Labour's Jack Straw asks if Cameron agrees that the attorney general should be independent, should defend the rule of law and should speak truth to power. Why was Dominic Grieve sacked?
Cameron says it is vitally important that the attorney general gives unvarnished advice. But in government it is sometimes right to bring on new people.
12.18pm BST
Andrew Jones, a Conservative, asks about rolling out super-fast broadband in Yorkshire.
Cameron thanks Jones, and the people in Harrogate, for the warm welcome they gave him when he visited the Tour de France.
12.16pm BST
Labour's Huw Irranca-Davies says taxpayers were robbed of £1bn by the sale of the Royal Mail.
Cameron says he disagrees. The government achieved the successful privatisation of the Royal Mail, he says.
12.15pm BST
Cameron says he commends the bravery of everyone who has spoken out about their experience with eating disorders.
12.15pm BST
Labour's Gareth Thomas asks Cameron if he welcomes the news that any woman not having equal pay will have their pay topped up with Tory funds.
Cameron says he is happy to confirm that Lady Stowell, the new leader of the Lords, will do the same job as her male predecessor, and receive the same money.
12.13pm BST
Snap PMQs Verdict: Miliband won the early exchanges, but the Harriet Harman quote - which may or may not have been taken out of context; I have no idea, because I have not seen the full thing - gave Cameron the advantage at the end.
12.11pm BST
Miliband says Cameron has the worst record on living standards of any prime minister. Can Cameron confirm that average pay is down £1,600 since the election, but that the top 1% took home an extra £15bn because of the top rate tax cut.
Cameron says Harriet Harman said yesterday people on middle-incomes should contribute more through their taxes. That is the squeezed middle. Labour should say who would pay more. The Tories would cut taxes, he says.
12.08pm BST
Miliband says he still does not know why Gove was sacked. This recovery is not benefitting more working people. Some 7m people in work are in poverty. Is the economy working for them?
Camneron says employment is up by 254,000 this quarter. He quotes other figures. Since the election there are 1.8m more people in work. And long-term youth unemployment is lower than in 2010. It is "disappointing" pay is not rising faster. But he quotes the IFS as saying that it would be astonishing if living standards had not fallen because of the great recession. And Labour was to blame for that, he says.
12.05pm BST
Ed Miliband says he always said he would support the government when it does the right thing. So he congratulates him on getting rid of Michael Gove. Why did he demote him?
Cameron says Sir George Young has been in the Commons for more than 40 years. And so when it came to replacing him, he wanted the best candidate.
12.03pm BST
Cameron says he is aware of the problems with the rail system in East Anglia. The transport department will give it its urgent attention.
12.02pm BST
Labour's Emma Lewell-Buck asks about Cameron's commitment to equality, and asks why 75% of the cabinet are still male.
Cameron says she is being "churlish". Labour's last cabinet had four full women members. His cabinet now has five. And, as for the Tory members of the cabinet, a third are women, he says.
12.01pm BST
This is from the Daily Mirror's James Lyons.
HMG front bench still looking v male and pale today (although there is a v fetching beard) #pmqs
12.00pm BST
It's going to be a good day for Yorkshire at PMQs, apparently.
Last PMQs before summer recess. @AndrewJonesMP @JulianSmithMP @Juliansturdy @DanJarvisMP are up with questions for Yorkshire...
11.47am BST
PMQs starts in about 15 minutes.
It is the last before the summer recess. And, with the unemployment figures out, it is likely to be dominated by the economy - the key electoral battleground.
A sharp rise in the number of jobs and a fall in unemployment could only lift average wages by a fraction in May, leaving workers to suffer another cut in living standards, according to official figures.
Unemployment fell to 6.5% of the workforce and employment edged higher to another record of 30.6m, but a 0.7% rise in wages, excluding bonuses, was well short of the 1.5% May inflation rate. Including bonuses, wage growth was just 0.3%.
11.35am BST
If you haven't already, do read the coverage of the reshuffle in today's Guardian. Guardian stories are always excellent, of course, but today's article - including the splash, Patrick Wintour's analysis of why Michael Gove was sacked, but not Iain Duncan Smith and Nicholas Watt's behind-the-scenes write-through - are especially good.
As for the rest of the papers, here are three reshuffle articles I found particularly interesting.
Of the three, Mr Crosby posed the greatest threat. A senior figure in the Conservatives new party headquarters said that the Australian, while admiring Mr Goves intellectual abilities as a think-tank on legs, was dismayed by the flow of controversy from his department.
In all the focus groups and surveys, Mr Gove achieved the unwanted double of being recognised and disliked by the public. One recent YouGov poll found that 57 per cent of the public could correctly identify him as education secretary, but that 55 per cent thought he was doing badly at the job.
I have always felt that there are two William Hagues. One is the Rotherham William Hague. The Yorkshire Conservative politician, brilliant parliamentary debater, partisan party man, political hobbyist still fighting the municipal socialism of the 1970s.
This Hague is at home with the nostalgia of the Conservative Party, loves party conferences and wants them always to be in Blackpool. This Hague is a parliamentary and political traditionalist, cant resist a robust political joke and is at one with the Tory activists he addressed when he was 16.
In an idle moment years ago in an Indian restaurant near Catterick garrison, I was eating a curry with the Tory leadership team when someone mentioned a date far in the future. A Monday, responded William Hague casually.
A what? I asked incredulously. A Monday, he repeated. So I began to test him. March 26, 2044? A Friday. October 14, 2031? A Tuesday. I checked. He was correct. So I congratulated him and said: Just one more thing, William. Brilliant though the ability you have demonstrated might be, I want you to make me a promise. Never ever, ever do that trick in public. Were in enough trouble as it is.
On top of all this, [Hague] achieved the superhuman feat of charting a sane course between the zealous euroscepticism of his party and cold diplomatic realities. He, like Mr Cameron, wants to remain in a reformed EU. This policy is nebulous and will probably end in an existential rupture of the Tory party when its fanciful expectations are dashed. But given the torrential pressure applied by the eurosceptic movement to go much further much earlier, it is a serviceable holding position. The right has come to resent him as an ideological sellout, a man suspiciously at ease with Brussels summitry and the language of compromise. This says more about their stridency than any wishy-washiness on his part. They will appreciate his successor, Philip Hammond, until he too evinces the first symptoms of euro-pragmatism.
Mail sinks to all time low http://t.co/0WBQYsucCK @everydaysexism I want 2 know what women running country think not what they're wearing
For example, McVey's image was "analysed" by Catherine Ostler, a former editor of Tatler and a journalist whose work I generally admire, in terms of her hair, bag, dress, shoes and - would you believe it? - legs.
The other eight received similar treatment. This one was "a little bit too Eighties air hostess". Another wore "sensible shoes". A third was criticised for wearing "a bold teal jacket" two sizes too big for her. And so on and on...
11.16am BST
Three Tory ministers sacked in the reshuffle are going to be given knighthoods, Joe Murphy reveals in the Evening Standard. And Ken Clarke is to become a companion of honour.
Two Conservative MPs are in line to be made Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.
They are Alan Duncan, who left his post as International Development Minister, and Hugh Robertson, who was a Foreign Office Minister and former Olympics Minister.
10.51am BST
"Retweets are not necessarily endorsements" is the usual rule of thumb on Twitter. It's a phrase that people often feel the need to post on their Twitter home page because, more often than not, retweets are actually endorsements.
And it's not wholly unreasonably to assume that, at least to some extent, that applies in the case of this tweet from Sarah Vine, the Daily Mail columnist who is married to Michael Gove.
A shabby day's work which Cameron will live to regret http://t.co/M9SN100PE1 via @MailOnline
Most of the new front-bench is no better and no worse than most governments in an age when politics has become largely a displacement activity for people unqualified for top jobs anywhere else.
But the removal of Michael Gove, standard-bearer for the most important reforms in British government this century, is worse than a crime. To borrow from the early 19th-century French politician Talleyrand, it is a folly, which must dishearten every right-thinking Conservative as much as it brings glee to the teachers unions, enemies of learning.
10.41am BST
Nick Clegg was asked in an interview this morning if he thought the Eurosceptic slant of the reshuffle was taking Britain nearer to the EU exit door. He said the Tories were "talking to each other" over Europe, not to the country.
I think the Conservatives are talking to each other rather than to the country, or even the rest of Europe, about Europe. What I want to see is a reformed European Union - more competitive, more open, less bureaucratic, more open trade but with Britain always leading in Europe.
If the Conservatives want to constantly change their own policy or their own stance or the way they talk about Europe, that is for them. This government, the coalition government, because of the Liberal Democrats in it, remained anchored in the centre ground, with Britain anchored firmly in the heart of the European Union.
10.37am BST
The unemployment figures are bound to come up at PMQs. The unemployment rate as fallen to 6.5%, its lowest level since 2008.
My colleague Graeme Wearden is covering the figures, and the reaction, in detail on his business live blog.
10.32am BST
I'm sorry I've been out of action for a while. But I'm in the office now and all set.
Yesterday we were told that, as chief whip, Michael Gove would also be doing the "minister for the Today programme" role from time to time. But this morning it was the new defence secretary, Michael Fallon, filling the 8.10 slot. He also gave an interview to Sky News.
We'll have to wait for the manifesto. But I think many people have been extremely frustrated by the process by which we're able to deport people who have no connection with this country, weren't born here, aren't citizens of this country, want to commit terrorist acts against this country and we've not been able to get rid of them.
Now I think most people - and it's taken years, if you remember, to get rid of some of these very well-known figures - I think most people would want reform to make sure that we can deport quickly people who threaten our security and have got no right to be here.
I think the country is pretty Eurosceptic now. You saw that at the European elections. We don't want to see Europe going on as it has been going on, harmonising and centralising. We want Europe to be more competitive, to be creating jobs, to be giving young people opportunities to be competing against the fast-growing areas of the world, to be looking outwards, to be developing trade agreements with the rest of the world.
Lord Hill has been leader of the House of Lords, a very important job in the government. Before that he's had experience in Downing Street. He's one of those really effective political operators, a little bit behind the scenes, I grant you, you may not have seen a lot of him on television recently, but that's not the job in the commission.
You've got to work behind the scenes, you've got to be an operator, you've got to build alliances and build coalitions. There are 28 member states altogether, and he's a pretty skilful behind-the-scenes operator. And I think he'll do a great job for Britain.
7.55am BST
It's the last PMQs before the summer recess. Often that's an event that ends up with MPs behaving at their worst.
And today, of course, they are still digesting the impact of the reshuffle. You can read the Guardian's main story about it here.
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