At PMQs, Cameron was the pitbull on Corbyn's leg - he won a victory but demeaned his office to do it

The Labour leader should take one lesson from today: when trying to put out a fire, don’t douse it in petrol. In a particularly vicious PMQs Jeremy Corbyn came a self-inflicted second best after using half his questions to deny Labour was a “racist party”. To be fair to Corbyn, the Prime Minister had made his mind up that this was going to be the Hamas and Hezbollah edition of PMQs, no matter what the Labour leader asked. But he couldn’t escape the radioactive ash cloud that is Labour’s antisemitism row and David Cameron made sure it was a constant theme.

Corbyn chopped up his questions to try and wrong-foot the Prime Minister, using them to flip through a roll call of failures, from housing and employment to poverty and social care: “When will the strong economy mean less people need food banks?” he demanded. The Prime Minister, never one to be held prisoner by the parameters of a question, used his responses to swat away all concerns and return to the only topic he wanted to discuss: antisemitism in Labour.

Stoic, if a little shaken by the Cameron’s sustained onslaught, Corbyn changed tack. Forgoing acknowledgement of the Prime Minister’s request that he disavows Hamas and Hezbollah, he challenged the Prime Minister on the rising number homeless people, which has “tripled since 2010”, and the diminishing “pathways” out of poverty for young people.

Like a pitbull with its jaws locked on Corbyn’s leg, however, Cameron wouldn’t let the Labour leader escape. Shifting his attacks to the London mayoral race, the Prime Minister launched a broadside against Khan’s dismissal of previous calls to violence against Jews as “flowery language” and made constant references to his apparent association with unsavoury “extremist” characters, such as Suliman Gani. 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings both were namedropped.

A number of Conservative commentators, including exceptional writers such as Peter Oborne, have called the Tory London mayoral campaign disgraceful for stirring up anti-Islamic sentiment to stop Khan. Jeremy Corbyn tried to tap into this by asking the Prime Minister what he was going to do about Zac Goldsmith’s “dog whistle” campaign against Khan. Cameron, in what can only be described as plain hypocrisy, said he couldn’t control what other people in his party say. Go figure.

Tomorrow’s local elections received only a cursory of nods - this despite the mounting evidence that poorer areas are suffering disproportionately because of cuts to council funding. In particular, David Cameron’s claim that they were raising money for adult social care should have been challenged. What is actually happening is that councils may voluntarily raise money via a 2 per cent tax precept to increase funding for social care. There is no requirement to do so, and there is certainly no way to ensure councils spend what money they do raise on care for older people.

The most welcome news from today was the Prime Minister’s announcement of a change in the government’s previous position of not accepting further unaccompanied child refugees. David Cameron said he will “look at what more can be done”. His former Party Chairman, Grant Shapps, said before PMQs that the government’s position doesn’t “look or feel right” and that “it should change”.

Public opinion has been mounting against the government on this issue and his party has been getting twitchy over it. Number 10 will have certainly noticed the collective consciousness moving against them and has made the right move, albeit a bit late.

This was a clear victory for the Prime Minister, but he demeaned his office to achieve it. By indulging in the faux outrage he so often castigates his opponents for, David Cameron made sure today was ugly and uncomfortable – but, for him at least, highly effective.