PMQs: Angela Eagle has shown that there is still life in Labour after Corbyn

There are moments when the House of Commons responds instantly and instinctively. The Labour side were lifted, the Tories downcast

We haven't heard a cheer like it from Labour MPs since Jeremy Corbyn became leader. When Angela Eagle, standing in for him, threw back a quotation from Tony Blair at George Osborne, to the effect that five years of Conservative government would be bad for the country, the Labour benches were noisily delighted.

It was Eagle's first outing for Prime Minister's Questions. The last time David Cameron was abroad it was Hilary Benn who went up against Osborne, who as First Secretary of State is the second ranking Cabinet minister. So this time it was Eagle, rather than deputy leader Tom Watson (above), because Corbyn had hurriedly promoted her to shadow First Secretary of State, in addition to her Business portfolio, when there was a fuss over the absence of women in top shadow cabinet posts.

Those of us who follow the House of Commons closely knew she would be good at it. As shadow leader of the House in the last parliament – an important job in Westminster, in charge of the business of the House, but obscure to the general public – she developed a fine line in deadpan wit.

After two serious questions about flooding – she said the Government had cut funding, Osborne said it was spending more – she turned to the serious business of baiting the Tories. She referred to the absent Prime Minister, "in Poland and Romania on his seemingly endless European renegotiation tour. He's been jetting all over the place. No wonder we had to buy him his own aeroplane." Then she paused, in command of the House. "How's it going?"

Osborne seemed wooden in reply. "The good news is we have a party leader who's respected abroad."

Eagle then made fun of Osborne's leadership ambitions. He wants to be leader of his party, she said, "and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that". But with the EU negotiations going so badly, "does he aspire to be the first post-EU prime minister?" She pointed out that Osborne had rivals for the top job "further down the front bench". Theresa May, the Home Secretary, immediately engaged Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet Office minister, in deep conversation. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, pointed at Letwin, and the Labour side took up the cry: "It's Oliver!" Letwin obliged by going bright red.

Eagle even gently teased her own leader, copying his device of reading out emails. She said she had a letter from "Donald of Brussels", who was obviously Donald Tusk, the EU president, saying the uncertainty over the referendum was a "destabilising factor".

Osborne tried to patronise her, by saying: "I suggest she ask a serious question, about the NHS or social care." And then read out a quotation from Tony Blair, "Labour's most successful leader", who said in his article in The Spectator this morning that the Corbyn-led party was a "tragedy".

Eagle's response was immediate. "I prefer this quote from Tony," she said. "Just mouth the words 'five more Tory years' and you feel your senses and reason repulsed by what they have done to our country." She had taken the elementary precaution against Osborne's using the Spectator article. It wasn't brilliantly sophisticated. It was basic preparation for a parliamentary occasion. But she got it right, and she delivered it well.

There are moments when the House of Commons responds instantly and instinctively. The Labour side were lifted, the Tories downcast. On his last reply, MPs were hardly paying attention to Osborne. "Well done, Angela!" shouted a Labour backbencher. Social media responded with a few seconds' delay: "Angela for leader."

As with Hilary Benn's virtuoso performance in the Syria debate last week, some people can command the House and others can't. Benn and Eagle, surprisingly, can. Corbyn and Osborne can't. It is not everything in politics, but it is something.