At PMQs, Cameron's tactic of derailing issues and dodging Corbyn's straight questions was shown to be wearing thin

With Cameron this open to attack, it's a shame Corbyn can't provide the barbed rebuttals he should have prepared

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the Commons at Prime Minister's Questions

If Hillary Clinton was “Feeling the Bern” in Iowa yesterday, then David Cameron must have been experiencing a searing ring of fire before entering the inferno that was the House of Commons today.

In what has been a relatively quiet week politically from the media’s point of view (unless you are a woman interested in her pension or are concerned about the conduct of banks), the PM’s EU “renegotiation” has caused public school anarchy on his backbenches, a trouncing for him on nearly every front page this morning and accusations of “trumpeting” national sovereignty abroad but not at home from the opposition.

However, Corbyn chose to lead not on the Europe issue (one can assume owing to the PM’s statement later), but instead hold Cameron over the fire on the NHS.

Corbyn’s opening salvo regarding a 36 per cent increase in 6 week cancer treatment waiting times, and his question of what the PM would be doing to bring that figure down was met with “Call me Dave’s” customary response whenever dealing with the NHS: “We are treating more patients! We’ve put £19 billion more into the NHS! More doctors! More nurses! More cancer specialists!” all of which conceals a slightly more complex – and depressing – reality about our health service, if we are to believe the hordes of junior doctors who actually work in it.

Corbyn then moved on to the subject of radiologists, citing the government’s Independent Task Force on Cancer’s assertion that there is a serious shortage of these specialists, and training places were being cut by 5 per cent.

Cameron noted that there are 18,000 more radiographers than there were in 2010, ignoring the fact it takes three to five years to train as one, so the majority of these would have started studying under Labour.

He also cited the fact the Government will be training 10,000 more nurses – with no mention of the cutting of bursaries, something Corbyn would have done well to pick up on.

The PM, somewhat predictably, brought up the subject of the NHS in Labour-controlled Wales – a topic he kept referring back to throughout the rest of his grilling, along with Kezia Dugdale’s proposed tax increase in Scotland.

Cameron’s rhetoric today of “Labour’s great plan: Higher taxes and more welfare” may be the oldest trick in the book, but with a leader still viewed in the media as a militant throw-back, it may well likely still stick. Undoubtedly today’s PMQs was the beginning of an assault that a Corbyn-led Labour will struggle to defeat.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the Commons at Prime Minister's Questions

Corbyn asked a question from “Martin” this week, continuing his “first name terms” strategy so adept at highlighting the difference between his grassroots approach versus Cameron’s supposed Westminster-centric one. “Martin” wanted to know if the House of Lords decision to reject the £30 a week cut to Employment and Support Allowance claimants in the work-related activity group would be “upheld [so] people… don’t suffer the cut that [Tories] wanted to make in the first place”.

As has become customary with this style of “Joe Bloggs” questioning from Corbyn, cacophonous, mocking “Yah”s and guffawing rapidly percolated through the Tory benches.

Unfortunately, Cameron’s attempts to justify his position (“In future, the WRAG should be paid at the same rate as JSA… But that is for future claimants… That is what a compassionate Conservative government does”) will surely fall on deaf ears of anyone who is currently working, but may well end up in a position where they find themselves reliant on ESA, and ignores the stress for the 500,000 people currently in the WRAG group, who have been formally declared to be too ill to work but well enough to undergo work-related interviews or training.

The PM then threw a speeding curveball, reverting again back to Corbyn “not being able to wash his hands of the situation in Wales”, citing seemingly shocking figures, and instructing Corbyn to “pick up the phone, and tell them to stop cutting our NHS”. Corbyn by this time was all-out of rebuttals over Wales – a thorn in his side which needs extracting. With doctor strikes on the horizon, an obvious retort should have been on his lips.

“Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest load” is a now infamous Cameron quote which Corbyn chose to resurrect today. The PM maintained that the rich were contributing the most – but I’m sure I recall something about “Google” and £130 million of tax last week.

Cameron seemed decidedly pressurised today, looking more red-faced than Trump at the end of the Iowa caucus.

His answers surrounding the NHS are steeped in selective and misleading statistics, and his refusal to provide straight answers to straight questions becomes increasingly irksome as the weeks pass.

Corbyn, unlike his predecessor, is adopting the style of not letting things simply go, and is beginning to develop two recognisable styles – one of pressing the PM on the biggest issue of the day, and the other of targeting subjects which his supporters hold dearly. The latter was used to good effect this afternoon, but the former could use a huge amount of work.

The final verdict?

Cameron – 5/10. Lacklustre effort. Must do better. See me.

Corbyn – 8/10. Strong performance – but room for improvement.