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PMQs exploded into a furious row today as Jeremy Corbyn meticulously shredded Theresa May's claim that "austerity is over".

The Prime Minister squirmed as Labour's leader asked step by step when austerity will end for mental health nurses, police, teachers, councils and benefit claimants - just like she promised last week.

Mrs May made the bold claim in her speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. But at the time she gave no details, and appeared to suggest it'll only happen if there's a good Brexit.

And it took five questions from Mr Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions today before she was willing to repeat the claim.

That was after she claimed councils' chaos was "not due to a lack of funding" and boasted there was "record funding" for mental health.

Instead of saying "austerity is over" again, she said: "Better times are ahead under a Conservative government."

Eventually, pressed by Mr Corbyn, she said: "Austerity is being brought to an end."

But to Labour jeers she immediately added: "What is not being brought to an end is fiscal responsibility."

After devoting each of five questions to five cuts-hit groups of society, Mr Corbyn said: "The Prime Minister declared she is ending austerity.

(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

"But unless the Budget halts the cuts, increases funding to public services, gives our public servants a decent pay rise, then isn't the claim that austerity is over simply a great big Conservative con?"

Mr Corbyn began his exchange - held on World Mental Health Day - by saying there were 5,000 fewer mental health nurses than in 2010, children are sent 300 miles away and the Royal College of Psychiatrists warns the income of mental health trusts in England is lower than six years ago.

"The Prime Minister said last week that austerity is over," he told MPs. "When will austerity be over for the mental health services?"

To jeers, Mrs May skirted around repeated the austerity claim.

Instead she said "this is a government that is ensuring mental health is given the attention that it needs" and she was pouring "record levels of funding into mental health".

She added there was more to do, and "that is exactly why we are setting out further steps today."

Mr Corbyn then gear-shifted to violent crime, slamming Mrs May for giving police less than the pay rise requested by an independent review body.

Experts demanded 2.75% - but she gave only 2%, plus a 0.75% one-off bonus that won't carry over to future years.

"If austerity is over for the police then it doesn’t seem she’s told the Police Federation about this," he said. "They are taking the government to court."

(Image: Photographer's Choice)

Labour's leader then screeched onto Education Secretary Damina Hinds - who has been "rebuked four times by the statistics watchdog for making false claims about education funding."

Teachers, like police, have got less of a pay rise than independent experts demanded.

The independent review body asked for a 3.5% boost to ALL pay ranges.

Instead, there's a 3.5% boost to the main and unqualified pay ranges, with senior leaders getting less.

"Can she confirm austerity is now over for ALL teachers?" Mr Corbyn asked.

Mrs May insisted "I recognise the pressures that schools are under" - but then immediately repeated one of the statistics that had been branded misleading, saying 1.9million more children were in good and outstanding schools than in 2010.

Labour sources said she scurried out the chamber when shadow minister Tracy Brabin raised her statistic - branding it “not necessarily the full truth”- at the end of PMQs.

Fourth Mr Corbyn raised the plight of cash-strapped councils like Northamptonshire - and again demanded she "end austerity as she promised last week".

For a fourth time Mrs May made no explicit reference to ending austerity in her answer.

Instead she said: "People have made sacrifices and they need to know their hard work has paid off.

"And yes better times are ahead under a Conservative government."

(Image: REUTERS)

And she defended austerity, saying councils have been asked "to make tough decisions... because of the state of the public finances and the economy we were left by the Labour government."

For his fifth of six questions, Mr Corbyn turned to benefits - which have been frozen for four years to 2020, a real-terms cut of £4billion a year,

He asked whether the "swingeing austerity on the lowest paid and disabled in our society… will now end."

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But Mrs May defended the new Universal Credit system, saying it would stop £2.4billion of benefits going unclaimed for 700,000 people.

"There are better times ahead," she said.

"Austerity is being brought to an end.

"What is not being brought to an end is fiscal responsibility."