Theresa May returned to the Commons today to take on Jeremy Corbyn in her second every prime minister’s questions - and she came prepared with some lines that resembled jokes.
Corbyn crowdsources questions for PMQs by asking members of the public to submit questions. And May picked up on the first response to one Labour Party tweet asking for suggestions which received this reply:
”The first one was good,” May told Corbyn as she read out the tweet. “He might want to make sure he stays sitting down for this.”
She added: “Whoever wins the Labour Party leadership, we are not going to let them anywhere near power again.”
The poll May deployed for her gag appears to be a YouGov survey which asked voters who they thought would be the best PM.
As the prime minister rolled out the prepared joke, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Diane Abbott shouted “what about housing?” at her across the Commons chamber. Corbyn had been using his questions to press May on the cost of buying a home.
May also could not resist rolling out a joke about so-called ‘Traingate’ - the row over whether Corbyn had fabricated a story about there being no seats left on a train in order to score political points.
The prime minister told Corbyn:
“Everything that he says just tells us all we need to know about modern Labour. The train has left the station, the seats are all empty, the leader’s on the floor even on rolling stock they are laughing stock.”
May has been under pressure to explain what her plan for Brexit is, given the long summer break her new government has had to formulate a plan. However she said ministers had been “working tirelessly” since the June vote.
“What a contrast with the party opposite, divided amongst themselves, incapable of uniting our country,” she told Labour.