Smash hit

12:17pm: Labour member complains about Conservative council's attitude to social housing. PM agrees.

12:17pm: Second big laugh of the day. Nick Clegg says: "Labour is finished: The choice now is between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats."

12:16pm: Mr Clegg says "Government is in total meltdown." PM is fighting for his survival. "But does he not see the dangers for our democracy when the people see that no-one is in charge?" The reply: Shouldn't the Lib Dems be backing us.

12:15pm: Nick Clegg, titan of the Lib Dems, stands up.

12:14pm: Question about the car industry from Labour member. This is what the country cares about, replies the Prime Minister. Not us, though. Not today.

12:13pm: David Cameron: "Why should the British public believe the Chancellor if the Prime Minister doesn't have confidence in him... The Government is collapsing before our eyes. Why doesn't he take the one act of authority still open to him ... get down to the Palace, get a dissolution and call an election?"

12:12pm: This Chancellor has been leading the world in pulling us out of recession, the PM says. Which does not quite answer the question.

12:11pm: We've heard it all before. The issue, Mr Cameron replies, is the Prime Minister's leadership. Will the Chancellor still be sitting there next week?

12:10pm: Mr Brown pays tribute to Ms Blears's record and accuses Mr Cameron, once again, of failing to address issues of policy.

12:09pm: Speaker Martin (still there) threatens to suspend PMQs if MPs do not calm down a bit. Mr Cameron follows up by accusing Mr Brown of running a dysfunctional Cabinet and asks his to guarantee that there will be no more resignations before the reshfuffle.

12:08pm: Mr Cameron: "If this was about expenses, then the Communities Secretary would have resigned weeks ago. But she decided to resign today."

12:07pm: Mr Cameron accuses him of being in denial. If these ministers were so good, why have they decided to resign? The reply: there have been issues on all sides of the House.

12:06pm: Mr Brown replies by paying tribute to Jacqui Smith

12:05pm: David Cameron says given resignations of four ministers, including Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears, "why doesn't the Prime Minister accept that his ability to command his Cabinet has simply disappeared?"

12:05pm: David Cameron gets up, pays tribute to dead servicemen and passes on condolences to Mr Dyer's family.

12:04pm: Question from Labour colleague about climate change. In the circumstances, we'll ignore it.

12:03pm: First question about "pathetic sight of Cabinet trying to reshuffle itself". Mr Brown replies by talking about the economy.

12:03pm: First laugh of the day. PM lists his engagements as is the tradition, saying that he has had meetings with ministerial colleagues. We knew that.

12:02pm: Goes on to say that we have "strong reason to believe" that a British citizen, Edwin Dyer, has been murdered by al-Qaeda, which the whole House will condemn.

12:01pm: Gordon Brown stands up. Pays tribute to no fewer than seven servicemen who have lost their lives since last PMQs.

11:56am: Standing room only in the chamber.

11:50am: Our last live coverage was of Michael Martin's resignation statement, which only lasted 33 seconds. PMQs should last about half an hour, however uncomfortable it gets for the Prime Minister. Will David Cameron press home the attack or will he be content to let Labour implode at its own speed? Will Ms Blears turn up or is she already headed back to Salford? Could we be in for a Geoffrey Howe moment? Everything might be answered.

11:45am: Welcome to live coverage of Prime Minister's Questions from the House of Commons, where Gordon Brown will have to defend his leadership after the resignation from the Cabinet of Hazel Blears. It was the fourth ministerial departure in 24hours, which, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, is beyond carelessness.

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