Surrey seems to be the hardest word for Theresa May as Jeremy Corbyn creates fireworks with leaked texts at PMQs

JEREMY Corbyn stood up in the House of Commons to his greatest cheers yet, sadly for him they came from the Tory benches.

But it turns out that the Leader of the Opposition was poised to strike.

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With Brexit votes and potential resignations swirling around, it could have been a disastrous day for Mr Corbyn - and it initially looked like he was retreating into his comfort zone of questions about the NHS.

However there is nothing like some leaked texts to spice things up, and Mr Corbyn had some dynamite.

The Labour leader produced messages sent by the boss of Surrey Council that were meant to be sent to a mysterious ‘Nick’ at the Department for Local Government.

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An unfortunate revelation for the Secretary of State for Local Government Sajid Javid, whose Special Advisor is currently called Nick.

Mr Corbyn smelled a plot being hatched for a deal to call off Surrey Council’s Referendum on council tax hikes to pay for social care that was mysteriously ditched on Tuesday.

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The local Tory boss was keen “to kill this off” but appeared to be holding out for a unique “memorandum of understanding” to “call off the R.”

Mrs May was temporarily left doing her best fly catching impression, and did not appear to have a decent answer on whether a sweetheart deal had been done with the leafy Tory council - a patch that coincidentally has plenty of Tory Ministers representing it.

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All very curious and it made for a proper Commons showdown, much missed under the current leaders of the two parties.

Finally PMQs actually generated some questions...

Not least, why did Surrey Council suddenly cancel the controversial referendum for 15 per cent hike in council tax to pay for social care?

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The PM swerved answering that and by the time Mr Corbyn sat down, the Tory benches weren’t cheering any more.

The more Mrs May accused Mr Corbyn of peddling "alternative facts" (“when what they need is an alternative leader”) it became more and more obvious she did not have an answer.

A good hit for the Labour boss on a tricky day, and up to the standard expected from an Opposition leader…

Now he has to do this every week.

SCORE: Theresa May 3 – 3 Jeremy Corbyn