Watch Labour MPs burst into chorus of cheers as Badenoch warns of huge trade union power expansion

She said Labour is set to deliver the “biggest expansion in powers” for trade unions in a generation - a comment which drew a chorus of cheers from the opposite benches.

“Exactly. Thank you. The public will have heard them cheer”, Badenoch sarcastically responded.

Badenoch was laying into the PM about the Employment Rights Bill, saying reforms would mean employees could take their bosses to employment tribunals on day one of a new job.

She said: “Let’s talk about this employment Bill. Part one of the Bill means a new employee can start a new job in the morning and take their employer to a tribunal that afternoon.

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“It is no wonder that this Bill has been called an adventure playground for lawyers. This Bill is terrible for business, but it is great employment for lawyers.

“I know the Prime Minister loves the legal profession, but he needs to stop being a lawyer and start being a leader. This is another measure in the Bill that fails his growth test. Will he show some leadership and drop it?”.

The Prime Minister said: “I understand she likes straight talking, she is talking absolutely nonsense. She knows that anybody that understands anything about the Bill or any employment law will know you can’t start in the morning and go to the tribunal in the afternoon.

“Now, we know she is not a lawyer, she is clearly not a leader, if she keeps on like this, she is going to be the next lettuce.”

The frosty PMQs session also saw Badenoch accuse her Labour counterpart of misleading the House and being “anti-growth”, while Starmer said the Tory leader’s only policy was to “shrink pensions”.

Commons leader Lindsay Hoyle hit back at the former assertion, saying: “We can’t accuse the Prime Minister of misleading the House. No, we can’t do it.”

It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered a speech outlining Labour’s plan for growth, which Badenoch criticised during the frosty PMQs session.

She said Reeves has “embraced a series of Conservative policies”.

Badenoch told MPs: “Yesterday, the Prime Minister set his growth test. He said, ‘if a policy is good for growth, the answer is yes. If it’s not, the answer is no’. This morning the Chancellor embraced a series of Conservative policies, although many are welcome, they will take years to deliver.

“When Conservatives left office, we had the fastest economic growth in the G7. But what is the Government doing for growth now? It’s destroying it. Let’s look at the Employment Bill. The Government’s own figures say it will cost businesses £5 billion a year. It clearly fails the Prime Minister’s growth test. Will he drop it?”

Sir Keir Starmer replied: “I think the proposition they left a golden inheritance was tested on the fourth of July.”

He added: “She asked what we’re doing, the ONS say we got the highest investment for 19 years. PwC, second best place to invest in the world. IMF, upgrading growth predicted, fastest growing major economy in Europe. Wages up, inflation down.

“There’s more to do with reforming planning and regulation, building the new homes that we need, supporting a third runway at Heathrow, and as she admitted to the CBI in November, ‘there’s no point in me just complaining about Labour’, she said, ‘it’s obvious that we Conservatives lost the confidence of business’. We’re not taking lectures from them.”