Key points

A sustained debate on the government’s plans to turn all schools into academies, with Corbyn pushing Cameron to explain the rationale behind the plans and challenging him by listing all the people who are against the plans – from Cameron’s constituency to local schoolchildren. Cameron in turn insisted that school standards were rising and that the plans would free headteachers from the “dead hand of bureaucracy”.

Snap verdict

A solid win for Corbyn. Cameron managed to get his usual comic broadside into his final answer (although did you notice how he did not do his usual schtick about the importance of a strong economy – the unemployment figures killed that off today), but Corbyn got the better of him with the sheer weight of evidence he was able to cite about the extent of opposition to the plan to turn all schools into academies. It seemed as if the quotes would never stop. If Labour’s research team did a good job, Cameron’s did too, because he had a sound response to Corbyn’s fifth question, about the school visit. But Corbyn’s quotes were better, and Corbyn successfully questioned both the need for more academies (claims that academisation raises quality is questionable) and how this could be seen as decentralisation.

The memorable lines

Corbyn, after citing the Tory MPs and councillors in Cameron’s own constituency who are opposed to the academy plan, cited three schoolchildren he met last week, forcing Cameron to address the issues they raised.

Cameron laboured a joke in which he welcomed the fact that John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, was banned from Labour’s conference before realising that it was in fact McDonald’s that was banned, and then questioning why Labour would not invite one of country’s the biggest employers. Here’s the punchline: