TONY BLAIR thought the party would never be over for him but he was wrong. For it was obvious yesterday that Mr Punch had lost his punch and, even worse, his punchlines. Two weeks ago, under siege over foreign prisoners, the Prime Minister had been reeling. Yesterday had a different, more deadly, feel to it. You could see his authority draining away, swirling down the plughole along with that rather lurid fake tan lotion.

I am not sure who found this more interesting, Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Mr Brown was there for the first time in ages, brooding away, his body posture back to the bad old pretzel days. John Prescott rushed in at the very last moment, our first sighting of him since his secretary revealed their “bizi” love life. The reshuffled front bench looked the epitome of glum.

It was Mr Cameron’s day. The joke used to be on him, but no longer. He had some crackers within his bruising series of questions. Once upon a time (ie, last week) Mr Blair would have found a way to turn the tide. The only good news for Labour was that he was not as hopeless as Ming “Flatliner” Campbell, whose recent performances should have the Lib Dems in despair.

Mr Cameron demanded to know why so many former Labour ministers were telling Mr Blair to go. When Mr Blair did not respond, Dave pounced. “The Prime Minister won’t even address the fact that he is losing the support of his party,” he cried, to huge cheers from Tory MPs, while Labour backbenchers watched as if in shock.

Dave flourished a leaked report given to the Prime Minister on why Labour had done so badly at the local election. He read from this in a mocking voice: “People were angry with Tony because they love him so much (this brought screams of laughter) and they are angry because they think he might go (more screams).” Mr Cameron, a chuckle of triumph in his voice, added: “That is what they call the view from the bunker.”

There was no denial from Mr Blair. He watched (and was that admiration in his eye?) as Mr Cameron returned to the fray, reminding the Prime Minister of what he had said about how long he would stay at No 10: “A full term is a full term and that is what it means.” Mr Cameron then announced, with perfect timing: “You said that when you went to Khartoum: presumably you wanted to see the place where Gordon was murdered!”

The Chamber erupted. “More! More!” shouted the Tories. Even the Great Gordo himself was smiling. I am sure he knows what it feels like to be under attack from the neighbouring hordes. Then came the cruellest blow of all for Mr Blair. Betty Williams, a loyal Labour backbencher, decided, for reasons known only to herself, that this was the perfect time to ask Mr Blair about transport links to St Helena.

Upon hearing the words “St Helena”, Mr Blair’s eyes began to roll like pinballs. The Chamber erupted in giggles. Ms Williams toiled away at her laboriously long question about Napoleon’s island of exile. Finally Mr Blair just rested his head back against the bench and laughed out loud. There was simply nothing else to do.

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