Jeremy Corbyn used an amazingly clever human shield to protect him from ridicule

Everyone in Britain thought today's Prime Minister's Question Time, (PMQs), could be a disaster for the new radical left-wing leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn.

His first few days at the helm have been rocky: He has - unusually - only given a couple of interviews since he won the leadership race at the weekend. He refused to speak at the House of Commons when he entered it for the first time as party leader on Monday.

And then he declined to sing the national anthem at an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Corbyn is a republican who believes in abolishing the royal family, and thus is not disposed to mouth the words "God save the Queen." But not singing the anthem at a war memorial was widely regarded as a needlessly insensitive error.

The expectation was that David Cameron was poised to savage him at the despatch box, as the prime minister took his traditional weekly questions from other MPs.

Usually, the Q&A session is punctuated by heckling, sarcasm, and ridicule-laced responses from both sides. The pantomime is part of the process. An unskilled debater can easily be made to look a fool, and in this environment Corbyn was the neophyte.

However, Corbyn did something incredibly clever that scored him some points, and inoculated himself against Cameron's attacks. Instead of coming up with the questions himself, he emailed Labour party members to ask what questions they wanted him to put to Cameron.

"I have taken part in many events across the country and people tell me that this place, our parliament, democracy and the conduct in this place [parliament] is too theatrical. People want their voices heard, so I thought that I will do PMQs a different way," he said in his opening statement.

He added that he received 40,000 emails and in the end he picked six. The questions hinged on housing (not cheap enough), welfare (not enough of it), and health services (not enough), specifically mental health.

This was clever because Cameron was prevented from mocking the questions - if he did, it would look like he was directly insulting the civilian who asked them.

"This question comes from Marie, 'what does the government intend to do about the chronic lack of affordable housing and the extortionate rents that private sector landlords are charging?'" said Corbyn, reading the first chosen question from his constituents.

Corbyn's questions

When Business Insider spoke to several people who supported Corbyn in his win as the Labour party leader, everyone said that it was because Corbyn had "integrity" and was willing to "stand up for what he believes in." Some said that he has given a voice to the public again.

So the way he conducted PMQs wasn't completely surprising. He made sure that every time he asked a question, he cited the name of the ordinary member of the public that asked it. Every question was more specific and personal than those which party members usually craft with their aides.

Corbyn even cited personal case studies.

"Prime Minister, you mention about the commitment to build more housing, but I have some serious questions from Steven. He said that the 1% cut in rent from councils and a lack of funding for housing associations will lose 150 jobs at the place he is working at, from March," said Corbyn.

"This will also lower the working conditions, maintenance of the properties which will also affect the people living it. Isn't it time you rethink funding and administration as well as the massive gap of 100,000 houses that is needed to be built?"

When it came to responses, Cameron was a lot less mocking that he could have been. He was measured, and in fact doled out a number of impressive statistics that showed that the British economy is in a better position than it has been in five years, from before the credit crisis.

For example, when Corbyn asked about the "absolutely shameful" cut in tax credits for families, Cameron was able to reel off a number of facts that show that Britons are in fact better off at the moment:

• Those on the National Living Wage, the lowest paid in the country, will see a £20 weekly pay rise.
• Someone on minimum wage will be thousands of pounds better off year on year.
• If you look between 1998 and 2009 in work poverty went up by 20% but now wages are growing at their fastest rate since 2009.
• The unemployment rate came in at 5.5%, the lowest since 2008.

"The old way isn't working. We have to tackle the causes of poverty and we can only do that by improving work, childcare, wages and the economy. Everyone is better off," said Cameron in response to "Claire's" question as delivered by Corbyn.

"We are moving away from low wages, high tax and high welfare. We have a record number of people in work and employment has gone up in every region. Labour wants unlimited welfare and to abolish the welfare tax cap but I say, a family who chooses not to work, should not be better off than those who choose to go to work."

Neither side "won" the debate. But that was not the point.

Crucially, Corbyn avoided a beating from Cameron after 24 hours in which he had made some missteps in the media - in addition to not singing the anthem, he also appointed a shadow chancellor (John McDonnell) who is so left-wing even his own supporters didn't initially believe the appointment was true. That was all Corbyn needed to achieve - an initial display of competence.

Equally important, Cameron didn't fall into Corbyn's trap, and the debate was more measured and sensible than it normally is. (Which was Corbyn's stated aim at the beginning.) Even the pro-Cameron Telegraph admitted Corbyn probably emerged the victor.