David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn clashed in Prime Minister’s Questions today…about how to wish people a Happy Christmas.
The Labour leader began his first question Speaker John Bercow “all members of the House and all staff here, and Major Tim Peake, who’s not on the planet at this time a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.”
His salutation to Tim Peake, the first British-funded astronaut in space, was met by laughter from the Conservative benches, with one MP quipping that the Labour leader was also “not on the planet”.
The Prime Minster began his answer to Mr Corbyn’s question on bed blocking in NHS hospitals by passing on his good wishes.
He said: “Let me join the Right Honorable Gentleman and let me be very clear that I don’t want to wish him the season’s greetings, I want a full happy Christmas for the Right Honorable Gentleman and everyone in the House.”
A bemused Mr Corbyn replied by saying: “Just for the record, I did say Happy Christmas. Maybe the Prime Minister wasn’t listening at the time.”
The exchange led to some bemused tweets from political journalists, who felt it added into the end-of-term feel around the last PMQs before Christmas.