DAVID CAMERON was greeted by a giant yellow chicken yesterday as he was driven out of Downing Street. The sight of a feathered follower has become familiar for the PM since he started dodging TV debates with Ed Miliband.

He could not though flap his way out of his 146th — and, fingers crossed — final Prime Minister’s questions of this parliament. It came after a rough week for the PM, in which he sparked a Tory leadership contest weeks before the election by letting slip his plans to retire in 2020.

Opening his questioning, Mr Miliband offered to arrange the “right honourable gentleman’s retirement” in exactly 42 days’ time. 

“This has been a government of the few for the few,” he said. “It is time for a better plan. It is time for a Labour government.”

Unfortunately Labour’s big attack on Tory tax plans fell flat when the PM promised the Tories would not raise VAT.

The Chancellor, sitting next to him, failed to hide his chagrin and senior Tory Treasury minister Priti Patel admitted later “that’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

Labour said the Tories were “making policy in a panic” after failing to receive a post-Budget bounce in the polls.

But’s there’s no doubt the PM’s second shock announcement this week went down better than his exit strategy.

Even Labour’s Stephen Pound urged his colleagues to “move on” from the chicken jokes, insisting instead that it is now more appropriate “to refer to him as a lame duck.”