Phew.

Politics was about to get boring.

Andy Burnham had pledged a new politics, with more collaboration, and less “point scoring”.

At his first Prime Minister’s Questions, he went out of his way to praise fellow MPs, from across the Chamber, at least initially.

He first had warm words for Ann Davies, Plaid Cymru MP for Caerfyrddin, over the early release of prisoners.

Next, he spoke fondly of the achievements of Jo Stevens, Labour MP for Cardiff East, who he sacked as Welsh Secretary.

Even Kemi Badenoch benefited from his hand of friendship.

After his marathon session in the Commons on the direction of the Government, she quipped: “Can I congratulate the Prime Minister on his stamina.

“For three hours, yesterday, he faced 125 questions from MPs across the House.

“Of course, Labour and the Lib Dems just wanted more government spending and taxpayers' money.

“But can he name a single spending request to which he answered no?”

Trying to maintain his collaborative approach, the former Mayor of Greater Manchester responded: “What I can say is I was quite clear in my statement about the need to get the welfare bill down.

“I do not want to be a Prime minister that sees a situation where we have so many people in their 20s not in education, employment, or training.”

He then proposed to Mrs Badenoch to “engage in problem solving rather than point scoring, and I hope the Right Honourable Lady will take up my offer on that point”.

The chance of the combative Tory leader accepting this proposal was never high and she probed on his spending plans: “So, what exactly has he cut?”

Mr Burnham then seemed to surprise even himself, let alone many MPs across the House, when he responded: “Well, in terms of what has he cut, tax is the simple answer.”

One of his first steps as PM was to axe VAT from electricity bills and lower business rates for pubs and some other hospitality sector firms.

But Mrs Badenoch hit back, saying the energy tax cut was unfunded, with former No10 Chief Secretary Darren Jones having revealed that was the case after being axed from the Cabinet.

She also stressed that Mr Burnham’s economic adviser Lord O’Neill of Gatley had criticised his Commons statement on Tuesday as “the last thing investors wanted to hear”.

Eleven minutes into PMQs, Mr Burnham then took off the gloves and went on the attack.

“Jim O'Neill always gives me candid advice. We don't always agree, but he and I work together to turn Greater Manchester from a former industrial heartland to the fastest growing city region in the country,” he said.

“They complain, Mr Speaker, but where are their ideas about growth?

“When they were in Government, we saw 14 years of stagnant growth.

“We saw 14 years of debt rising as a percentage of GDP, I would say to her that the turbulence on global markets are because of that exposure that they left behind.”

No debate about economic crises in Britain can be complete these days without reference to Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-Budget in September 2022.

So two minutes later, Mr Burnham doubled down, attacking the new Tory shadow cabinet “the majority of whom were part of a Government that lasted for 49 days...that crashed confidence in the economy, hammered people's mortgages.”

He pointed out that Sir Mel Stride, who criticised the “mini Budget” had been replaced by Andrew Griffith who he said helped to write the doomed economic plan.

As the tit-for-tat exchanges grew, Mrs Badenoch replied: “He says he wants new politics. He says he wants honesty. So why is he pretending that a junior minister wrote that Budget?”

She added: “It's the same old Labour politics, tax and spend.”