Did you get a bet on in the new PMQs market?

With the two tabloids that are reckoned to have the most impact on public opinion, the Mail and the Sun, leading on the legal bid by the Speaker to stop MPs expenses being made public could David Cameron be considering this as his first line of attack at PMQs this lunchtime?

The Tory leader has never been known to be shy when it comes to issues raised by the tabloids and it would certainly fit in with his attempts to be a populist on the issue of what MPs claim. Last month to groans from all sides of the house he was calling at PMQs for the abolition of final salary pension schemes for new MPs.

The legal move followed a decision a few hours earlier by the information tribunal ordering that data about the housing allowances paid to 14 specific MPs, including Gordon Brown and David Cameron, be published this week. Among the other politicians included in the group are John Prescott, George Osborne, and Ming Campbell.

In what seemed like an advance move to put Brown under pressure the Telegraph is reporting that “Mr Cameron’s aides disclosed that of the £21,359 he claimed in 2005-06 more than £21,200 was for the mortgage interest paid on his constituency home in Witney, Oxfordshire. He is thought to have claimed less than £100 on utility bills and nothing on household furnishings or groceries.”

All this comes after the new betting market on Cameron’s first topic at PMQs appeared to have really taken off with hundreds of wagers being placed following the story here yesterday afternoon.

It would be interesting to know if Brown and Cameron are following this market. My guess is that their offices certainly are.

Mike Smithson