Rishi Sunak was told to “grow up” after he tried to dodge a question on soaring mortgage rates with a lame gag about Nicola Sturgeon.
The PM was blasted by Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, during prime minister’s questions.
Flynn had asked Sunak whether he “agreed with his own analysis” during last year’s Tory leadership contest - which he lost to Liz Truss - when he said high mortgage costs would cost his party the election.
In response Sunak insisted the Conservatives were “disciplined with the public finances” and added: “I saw that the SNP yesterday had a meeting to discuss their future, but the only thing that they managed to decide was that they should send Nicola Sturgeon some flowers.
“So can he tell us did he sign the card?”
That was a reference to a show of support from SNP MSPs following Sturgeon’s arrest last weekend as part of a police probe into the party’s finances.
Flynn hit back: “Respectfully, the prime minister needs to grow up.
“There is an elephant in this here chamber when it comes to the dire economic circumstances facing the UK, and that’s Brexit.
“The Tory benches, they don’t want to accept it and the Labour Party, they don’t want to talk about it, but whether it’s food prices, energy prices or indeed mortgage prices, households in Scotland are being shafted by Brexit.
“So can I ask the prime minister will he apologise for the cycle of misery that Westminster has caused?
Sunak had earlier been branded “weak” by Keir Starmer for failing to block Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.