Corbyn tells May to 'take a check with reality' at PMQs
The Labour leader tells the PM she needs to get real on low pay, but Mrs May says her opponent is "always talking Britain down".
Wednesday 19 July 2017 18:12, UK
Jeremy Corbyn urged Theresa May to "take a check with reality" as the pair clashed in their final PMQs before the summer break.
The Labour leader went on the attack on the issue of low pay, warning it is a threat to an "already weakening" economy.
Mr Corbyn's MPs could be heard shouting "Give them a pay rise" after Mrs May praised the emergency services for their response to the recent terror attacks.
He criticised Cabinet "bickering and backbiting" in the wake of a series of leaks aimed at damaging the Chancellor Philip Hammond, but Tory MPs shot back, telling Mr Corbyn to "look behind you" towards his own benches.
The PM said her opponent was "always talking Britain down", as she defended her approach to public sector pay, which includes a 1% cap on pay rises.
Raising reports Mr Hammond had told a Cabinet meeting that public sector workers are "overpaid", Mr Corbyn jokingly asked Mrs May if she believed the Chancellor was referring to her own ministers.
"The Conservatives have been in office for 84 months - 52 of those months have seen a real fall in wages and income in our country," he said.
Mr Corbyn quoted the PM's pledge before the election to make sure that everyone would feel the benefits of a strong economy, asking: "Do you agree you cannot have a strong economy when six million people are earning less than the living wage?"
Mrs May replied: "I'll tell you when you can't have a strong economy, it's when you adopt Labour Party policies of half-a-trillion pounds extra borrowing which will mean more spending, more borrowing, higher prices, higher taxes and fewer jobs.
"The Labour government crashed the economy, the Conservative Government has come in - more people in work, more people in jobs, more investment."
Mr Corbyn responded: "Can I invite the Prime Minister to take a check with reality on this?"
Tory MPs then began heckling the Labour leader, who briefly paused before adding: "One in eight workers in the United Kingdom, that is 3.8 million people, in work now living in poverty, 55% of people living in poverty are in working households.
"The Prime Minister's lack of touch with reality goes like this - low pay in Britain is holding people back at a time of rising housing costs, rising food prices and rising transport costs.
"It threatens people's living standards and rising consumer debt and falling savings threatens our economic stability.
"Why doesn't the Prime Minister understand that low pay is a threat to an already weakening economy?"
Mrs May said three million more jobs have been created since the Tories came to power in 2010, adding that the so-called national living wage - an increased minimum wage - offered the "biggest pay increase for people on lowest incomes ever".
Mr Corbyn said Mrs May's rhetoric on the economy "doesn't remotely match the reality" millions of people face.
He added: "I look along that front bench opposite and I see a Cabinet bickering and backbiting while the economy gets weaker and people are pushed further in to debt."
The Labour leader continued: "Isn't the truth that this divided Government is unable to give the country the leadership it so desperately needs now to deal with these issues?"
Mrs May replied: "The reality is you're always talking Britain down and we're leading Britain forward."