Key points

Jeremy Corbyn welcomed Theresa May’s offer of Brexit talks and her “willingness to compromise” and said he looked forward to seeing her later. He then asked why poverty had risen under May’s administration.

May said no one wanted to see poverty rise. But the only way to stop this was with strong employment, welfare and by making sure work paid. In 2010 someone on the minimum wage working full-time would have taken home £9,200. Now it was £13,700.

Corbyn said the Tories strongly opposed the introduction of the minimum wage. But people on these wages were on poverty wages. He said universal credit was failing and May should hold a review of it. May responded that the government had already changed it.

She said a strong economy giving people better jobs was the way to tackle poverty. She said a Labour government would spend £1tn more than the Tories and would raise taxes.

Corbyn said the last Labour government halved child poverty, and brought in Sure Start centres. Food bank use had increased by more than 50% where universal credit had been introduced. Why was the government pushing ahead with cuts to pension credit for couples where one person was below pension age? May said under Labour pensions rose just 75p.

Corbyn retorted that the last Labour government lifted 2 million pensioners out of poverty. He said the Tories promised to scrap the triple lock at the last election and May should rule it out for the next manifesto. May said the government had made its commitments to pensioners and pensions had gone up.

Corbyn said “Waspi” (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women would be alarmed by what May said and asked whether the government would guarantee free TV licences for the over-75s. May said the BBC was in a position to do that with the money it got.

Corbyn said the last Labour government promised free TV licences, while May was outsourcing that to the BBC. He contrasted the record of the last Labour government with the record of this government, saying it had made a political choice about poverty. Unless this government tackled rising poverty and low pay, May’s government would be a failure, he said.

May said she did not realise Corbyn was such a fan of the last Labour government seeing as he spent all his time voting against it. This government had introduced the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights for 20 years. Councils were free to build more homes. There were world-class public services. The Tories were delivering on things that mattered.

Snap verdict

There is an alternate universe where perhaps David Cameron never announced a referendum, or remain won, and politics in 2019 is devoted to the usual arguments about things such as the economy, wages, poverty and welfare reform. After a brief and rather gracious statement welcoming her invitation for Brexit talks, Corbyn took us into this parallel universe for about 15 minutes or so by devoting all his questions to economy/welfare issues. “Parallel universe” is not quite right because it was the real world, he was describing – Britain in 2019 – and his questions sounded like a reliable canter through what would be the main issues in a (Brexit-free) election campaign. May seemed happy to engage with Corbyn on this territory, although his talking points were more compelling than hers. But it all felt like a huge distraction from the crisis engulfing the government, and the country, and May came under much more pressure from her own MPs than she did from Corbyn. By my count, at least seven Tory Brexiters (Davis Amess, David Jones, Lee Rowley, Julian Lewis, Caroline Johnson, Christopher Chope and Nigel Evans) taunted her with varying degrees of anger over her decision to embrace Labour in the hope of getting a Brexit deal through parliament. They weren’t calling for her to quit, because she has promised that already, but nevertheless from that wing of the party all respect for her has now vanished. The best question came from Evans, who tried, and failed, to get an assurance from May that the UK would not fight European elections. Expect to hear a a lot more about his in the coming days. And the other standout question came from the SNP’s Stewart Hosie. He asked May:

After two years of Brexit deadlock, intransigence and a seven-hour cabinet meeting, the best the prime minister can do is invite the leader of the British Labour party to become the co-owner of her Brexit failure. Let me ask her, had she been the leader of the opposition, and invited into a trap like this, would she have been foolish enough to accept?

Hosie did not get a proper answer, but many Labour MPs were probably thinking his analysis was spot on.

Memorable lines

Jeremy Corbyn:

Unless this government tackles insecure work, low pay, rising pensioner poverty, her government will be marked down for what it is: a failure in the eyes of the people of this country.

Theresa May: