David Cameron Is Turning PMQs Into a Student Union Debate

David Cameron did something truly awful at Prime Ministers' Questions on Wednesday, dragging the tone of the debate well below even the usual level:

"When I read they were going to ban McDonnell from their party conference, I thought it was the first sensible decision they'd made. It turns out it wasn't the job-destroyer they wanted to keep away from their conference. It was one of Britain's biggest employers. No wonder Labour MPs are in despair – frankly I'm lovin' it."

Unfortunately this phenomenally crap joke about a Labour Party argument over kicking out Maccy Ds from their conference for their poor form on workers' rights did not steal the show. That's because he went one further and managed to say something that got him accused of being a racist by Labour MPs.

David Cameron took to the despatch box and said, "If we are going to condemn not just violent extremism, but also the extremism that seeks to justify violence in any way, it is very important that we do not back these people and we do not appear on platforms with them and I have to say I am concerned about Labour's candidate for mayor of London who has appeared again and again and again…"

Before he could continue, Labour MPs heckled this as "racist". They seemed to have in inkling that the PM was about to say something that slotted into a continuum with the rest of the Tory mayoral campaign, which has been accused of appealing to racial prejudice.

Regaining his composure, Dave continued: "The leader of the Labour party is saying it's disgraceful. Let me tell him. Sulaiman Ghani – the honourable member for Tooting [Sadiq Khan, Labour's candidate for mayor] has appeared on a platform with him nine times. This man supports IS. I think they are shouting down this point because they don't want to hear the truth. Anyone can make a mistake about who they appear on a platform with. But if you do it time after time after time, it is right to question your judgement."

Sadiq Khan was quick to chime in his disappointment that the PM had joined Zac Goldsmith's "divisive, dog whistling campaign".

Gani himself responded by saying it was slander that the PM could only get away with in the Commons. A slew of Labour MPs tweeted that it was "desperate", "disgraceful" and so on. Gani has also tweeted a picture of him smiling with Zac Goldsmith. Awkward, because Goldsmith has said, "To share a platform nine times with Suliman Gani, one of the most repellent figures in this country, you don't do it by accident."

Those criticisms are unsurprising enough. What hasn't been mentioned so much is how weird it is that a Conservative would be criticising someone for "sharing a platform". The implication is that Khan should instead have been "No Platforming" Gani for all these years.

For those who haven't been anywhere near a student union for a while, "No Platforming" has for years been a left-wing policy to stop racist dicks like the BNP and other extremists being allowed to speak at events. More recently, the phrase has been sucked into tabloid discussions over whether it's OK for people like Germaine Greer, who have crap opinions about trans people, to speak at universities.

Conservatives tend to view it as censorship and against their libertarian ideals. Groups of young Tories have often opposed it in universities, pointing out that if you subject a fascist to a rational argument, they'll see the error of their ways and stop beating up non-white people.

Well, Conservative Future cohorts at universities everywhere must be pretty confused right now. I guess no platforming is great so long as whoever you're shutting up really is horrible, and I see no problem letting the PM be the arbiter of that.

People are accusing Cameron of "demeaning his office" by joining in with a mud-slinging mayoral campaign that stirs up ethnic tensions. In fact, Cameron erring uncomfortably close ethnic insensitivity for political gain is nothing new. This is a guy whose "Prevent" anti-extremism programme basically pathologises Muslims, and who was happy to give a speech against multiculturalism on the day of the biggest anti-Islam rally ever to take place in Britain (providing cover for extremists I guess you could say), to take just a couple of examples.

Just recently, VICE revealed that the government is hiding behind the language of "safe spaces" to deny freedom of information requests. And now, just weeks after bringing a "your mum" joke to the dispatch box, Cameron is bringing the language of student unions into PMQs.

@SimonChilds13

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