JEREMY Corbyn urged Theresa May to "take a check with reality" as he warned how low pay was a threat to an "already weakening" British economy.

Labour MPs could also be heard shouting: "Give them a pay rise" after the Prime Minister praised the emergency services for their response to the recent terror attacks and recognised their “sacrifice” in being faced with a one per cent pay cap.

Mr Corbyn also prompted Tory MPs to shout out: "Look behind you" after he criticised Cabinet "bickering and backbiting" following the malevolent leaks against Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Mrs May accused the Labour leader of "always talking Britain down" as she defended her approach to public sector pay restraint, stressing how there had to be a balance between the pay of workers and the contribution of taxpayers.

In a rowdy Prime Minister's Questions, the last before the summer recess, the Labour leader highlighted the reports that Mr Hammond had told last week’s Cabinet meeting that public sector workers were "overpaid" when their pensions were taken into account.

He jokingly asked Mrs May if she believed the Chancellor was referring to her own ministers, before telling MPs: "The Conservatives have been in office for 84 months, 52 of those months have seen a real fall in wages and income in our country."

Mr Corbyn quoted Mrs May's pre-election pledge to ensure everyone would feel the benefits of a strong economy, asking: "Do you agree you cannot have a strong economy when six million people are earning less than the living wage?"

The PM replied: "I'll tell you when you can't have a strong economy, it's when you adopt Labour Party policies of half-a-trillion pounds extra borrowing which will mean more spending, more borrowing, higher prices, higher taxes and fewer jobs.

"The Labour Government crashed the economy, the Conservative Government has come in[creating] more people in work, more people in jobs, more investment."

Mr Corbyn countered: "Can I invite the Prime Minister to take a check with reality on this?"

Amid Tory heckling he continued: "One in eight workers in the United Kingdom, that is 3.8 million people, in work now living in poverty, 55 per cent of people living in poverty are in working households.

"The Prime Minister's lack of touch with reality goes like this: low pay in Britain is holding people back at a time of rising housing costs, rising food prices and rising transport costs.

"It threatens people's living standards and rising consumer debt and falling savings threatens our economic stability. Why doesn't the Prime Minister understand that low pay is a threat to an already weakening economy?"

Mrs May responded by stressing that some three million more jobs had been created since the Tories took power in 2010, pointing out that the so-called national living wage - an increased minimum wage - offered the "biggest pay increase for people on lowest incomes ever".

She added: "When did the Labour Party ever introduce the national living wage? Never. That was a Conservative government and a Conservative record."

But Mr Corbyn pointed out: "It was Labour that first introduced the minimum wage with opposition from the Conservative Party."

He argued that Mrs May's talk of a strong economy did “not remotely match the reality" millions of people faced.

"I look along that front bench opposite and I see a Cabinet bickering and backbiting while the economy gets weaker and people are pushed further in to debt."

The Labour leader finished with an attack on the Government's record, raising concerns about the economy and highlighting Brexit talks.

He said: "Isn't the truth that this divided Government is unable to give the country the leadership it so desperately needs now to deal with these issues?"

But to Tory cheers Mrs May replied: "The reality is you're always talking Britain down and we're leading Britain forward."