Jeremy Corbyn picks housing for first PMQ question after public consultation

He also called for “solidarity” with workers around the world, blaming a “free market philosophy” for workplace tragedies in China.

The veteran left-wingers performance will be welcomed by the Corbyn camp, following a rocky start to his leadership.

And his response to a question from Northern Irish MP Nigel Dodds left little doubt that the PM was seeking to draw attention to controversy over past comments on the Troubles by Mr Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

Jeremy Corbyn has accused critics of “living in the 18th Century” amid jibes that he has overlooked women for Labour’s biggest jobs.

Despite the sober tone of the Commons encounter, Mr Cameron did not entirely resist the opportunity to go on the attack, repeatedly warning that the high-quality public services which Mr Corbyn demanded would not be affordable without a strong economy.

But Labour had chosen not to oppose the legislation, she said.

It occurs to me that Corbyn is certainly not the right person to lead the Labour Party to victory.

“The reduction of the benefit cap has the effect of social cleansing many parts of our towns and cities”.

The new Labour leader delivered an angry retort to jibes that he is a “deficit denier”.

“What they are is poverty deniers: Ignoring the growing queues at food banks”. It’s the opening up of the Labour party to the people that it was created to represent and it sends a clear and alternative socialist message to the Tory agenda of Austerity and inequality.

Mr Corbyn received a rapturous welcome on arrival at the conference centre, and a standing ovation when he reached the stage. The Party is now divided between those who support Corbyn and those who are more to the centre of the Party. “It was never justified and people who seek to justify it should be ashamed of themselves”.

In a conciliatory move, the new Labour leader pledged to remain in post if his party decided to back renewal of Trident despite his lifelong opposition.

“And above all, they wanted their voice heard in parliament”.

The first left-wing Labour leader in a generation will use Margaret Thatcher’s description of the trade unions as the “enemy within” to spur a defiant defence of the threatened right to strike.

At the heart of Corbyn’s economic policy is “people’s quantitative easing”, a proposal to print money to pay for investment in infrastructure such as housing and railways. “No it is not”, he said.

Mr Corbyn argued it posed a threat to civil liberties of all society. “When I stand at the despatch box for Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, I want to be your voice…my questions will be your questions”. Cameron’s answers were equally so: “The country has to live within its means”. His previous achievements in Parliament included being voted worst dressed and having the best beard. “These things are practical realities that we, together, intend to achieve”.

Later in the day, Corbyn’s foreign policy chief, Hilary Benn, issued a statement that appeared to express much firmer support for European Union membership, regardless of Cameron’s actions.

It certainly made a change for one of the most recognizable features of British democracy, which has over the decades been nothing more than a shouting match between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.