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Harriet Harman speaks during Prime Minister's Questions
Harriet Harman speaking at PMQs today. Photograph: BBC

11.17am: Gordon Brown is at the G8 summit (where his wife has joined the circus as a conference blogger – welcome to the club, Sarah) leaving Harriet Harman to take on William Hague. These "clash of the deputies" encounters have often seemed pretty pointless, but today it will be interesting to see how Harman presents the Labour message on public spending. Ministers seem to be moving away from the crude "Labour investment versus Tory cuts" sloganising and there are signs that they have now got a slightly different message. Roughly translated, it's: "We may have to cut spending, but, unlike the Tories, at least we'll feel bad about it." In the Times yesterday Rachel Sylvester characterised this approach as "nice Labour cuts versus nasty Tory cuts". On Monday Peter Hain in the Western Mail described this as "prudence with a conscience from Labour". Today we'll probably hear Harman's take on it all.

12.02pm: Harman starts with condolences to the families and friends the servicemen killed in Afghanistan over the last week. She names all seven of them.

12.03pm: That's the highest death toll in Afghanistan in the course of a week for some time. She also offers her condolences to the families of those killed in the Camberwell fire, in her constituency.

12.04pm: Care of the elderly

Malcolm Wicks (Lab, Croydon North) asks Harman to agree on the need for a "robust" policy to pay for care for the elderly, spreading risks and costs.

12.05pm: Harman says the government will bring forward a green paper on this soon.

12.06pm: Stephen Dorrell, the former Tory health secretary, says the government's policy on this issue has been to "procrastinate and delay". He names all the various reviews on this over the last 11 and a half years. When will the government act, he says.

12.07pm: Harman says the government has acted. She moves on to family care, and mentions the right to request flexible working (which mainly helps parents, not those looking after the elderly).

12.08pm: Public sector pensions

Linda Gilroy (Lab, Plymouth Sutton) says public sector workers have an average annual pension of £7,000 a year. Does Harman understand how angry they get when their pension arrangements are criticised in the press? (Sounds like she's been reading Polly Toynbee.)

Yes, says Harman.

12.09pm: William Hague

The shadow foreign secretary starts with tributes to those killed in the Camberwell fire and in Afghanistan.

12.10pm: Given the casualties, is the government satisfied that everything possible is being done to provide all the protection troops need in Afghanistan?

Harman says there's "no complacency" on this. The government accepts it needs to provide more armoured vehicles, and more helicopters.

Hague says the Tories will hold the government to these commitments.

12.10pm: Will Harman put into "plain English" the prime minister's assertion last week that public spending will rise by "0%" in 2013.

12.12pm: Harman says the figures are in the budget Red Book. The government is taking action to protect people. The Tories would cut public investment now, "just when the economy needs it most". George Osborne said last week he spends 40% of his time thinking about economics. It's amazing he spends 40% of his time thinking about doing nothing, she says.

Hague says Harman should spend 100% of the next minute answering the question. Shouldn't she find it in herself to admit the facts of the government's figures, and "come down on the side of reality".

12.14pm: Harman says her "honest" view is that the government ought to invest now to support the economy. How telling it is that the Tories only want to talk about figures in five years' time. They don't want to talk about their plans to cut spending now.

Hague says: "Isn't the point that capital spending being halved an indisputable fact?"

Harman says the government has not halved spending, but brought it forward. The government did that because it would create jobs. The Tories would pull the plug on spending.

12.16pm: Hague says Harman's statement that "we are not cutting capital spending" is exactly the sort of statement that damages confidence in politics. No wonder the government is dropping its numeracy strategy. Isn't it also a fact that Labour projections would lead to cuts in departmental spending?

Harman says unemployment would be growing if the government implemented the cuts proposed by the Tories. Five hundred thousand more people would have lost their jobs if the government had not acted.

12.17pm: Hague says that if Harman believes capital spending is not being cut and that unemployment is not growing, it's no wonder the government is out of touch. The next government will inherit terrible finances. They're Labour cuts, made necessary by the actions of a "discredited government".

12.19pm: Harman says the UK has paid down debt and has the second lowest debt in the G7. The Tories have "nothing to offer the future".

12.19pm: Diageo

Des Browne, the former Labour minister, asks about the plans by the drinks manufacturer Diageo to close a factory in Kilmarnock.

Harman says the announcement is "very bad news" for the constituency. Jim Murphy, the Scotland secretary, will meet the company.

12.20pm: Vincent Cable

The Lib Dem Treasury spokesman also offers condolences to the dead servicemen and those killed in the fire.

12.22pm: How does the government expect low-paid public sector workers to accept restraint at a time when the government is offering big salaries and bonuses worth an average £10,000 to senior managers. (He does not say which managers.)

Harman says restraint should apply at the top.

Cable says that two-thirds of senior civil servants expect a bonus "just to get out of bed in the morning". Why doesn't the government say no to bonuses in the nationalised banks?

Harman says the chancellor will make a statement covering this later.

12.23pm: UK Youth Parliament

Harman says she wants to do everything possible to increase the involvement of young people in parliament. She says she's glad the youth parliament is meeting in the Commons. "You never know, we might even learn something from them."

12.24pm: Housing in Cornwall

Harman says the government thinks there should be more affordable housing in Cornwall.

12.25pm: Dock labour scheme

Anthony Wright (Lab) asks Harman to back moves to secure the future of the port dock labour scheme in Great Yarmouth. Harman says she will take it up with the relevant ministers.

12.25pm: Afghanistan

John Maples (Con) says 170 soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2006. What is Britain's military objective there?

12.27pm: Harman says she does not want anyone to be in any doubt about the importance of the mission. The government does not want "a crucible of terrorism" to emerge there. She also stresses the importance of expanding education in the country.

Fuel prices

Lindsay Hoyle
(Lab) asks if the government will defer the 2p duty increase due to come in in September.

12.28pm: Harman says there is "real concern" about the increase in oil prices. The government wants to ensure that prices are fair.

12.29pm: Equitable Life

Harman says there should be "justice" for the Equitable Life policyholders. Sir John Chadwick is reporting on creating a framework for compensation.

12.30pm: Council housing

Alan Whitehead (Lab) asks if new council houses will be built to the highest possible environmental standards.

12.32pm: Harman says these issues will be addressed in the Building Britain's Future programme.

Pleural plaques

In response to questions from Julia Goldsworthy and Ronnie Campbell, Harman says the government believes there should be justice for pleural plaques sufferers.

12.34pm: Unemployment

Richard Ottaway (Con, Croydon South) asks if Brown is still committed to his claim that Labour would not leave office with unemployment higher than it was when the party came in.

Harman doesn't give that commitment, but says that if Ottaway were worried about unemployment, he would be backing increased public spending.

Instant summary

It's starting to feel like Groundhog Day. Harman and Hague both avoided daft jokes, which was a relief. But Hague found it relatively easy to get the better of Harman by inviting her to contradict Gordon Brown's unsustainable claims about public spending. Interestingly, she kept trying to get the subject back to public spending this year - and the fact that the Tories do not support spending at current levels. Ministers seem to think that this offers them a better prospect of winning an argument with the Tories over spending.

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