Live: Prime minister's questions

Analysis
By Jo Coburn
Political correspondent, BBC News

With Gordon Brown in Brussels for another EU meeting, Harriet Harman got her third turn in the chair at prime minister's questions.

The session began with one Labour backbencher joking that the deputy Labour leader was sitting in 'Superman's seat' - such is the prime minister's stock these days.

Opposite her for the Conservatives was William Hague. The topic of the day was, as the Americans say, a no brainer - the economy stupid.

Harriet Harman: A third time at PM's questions

There was little trace of the cosy bi-partisanship espoused by the Tory leader David Cameron just a few weeks ago.

William Hague got straight down to business pressing Ms Harman about the impact of the banking crisis on the real economy.

Jobs, pensioners, small businesses they were going to suffer and what was the government doing about it?

The deputy leader's response was concern and a warning to the right honourable gentleman not to write off the British economy.

It was all a little turgid as neither side managed to score any clear points.

But then William Hague landed a blow with his claim that "the government can no longer boast about their record".

He thundered on, saying Gordon Brown's claim to have abolished boom and bust was one of the "most hubristic and foolish" claims to have been made by a prime minister.

Baffled

Harriet Harman's response was less than convincing. By stating that "this was a serious moment for the economy" she was hardly telling us anything we had not noticed ourselves.

Then it was Vincent Cable's turn. He has already earned a reputation as the Liberal Democrats' economic guru and has been pushing hard for a deeper cut in interest rates.

The complexities of economics are baffling enough for most of us and maybe Ms Harman was just being honest when she said "I don't really understand what he's talking about on interest rates".

But it turned out she was baffled by his comments in the light of the big rate cut announced last week.

It was fitting that a session dominated by the economy, should end its leaders' exchanges on such a note.