Philip Hammond ribbed Theresa May and cracked a joke about needing throat sweets to get through his budget speech.
The Prime Minister played along and handed the Chancellor a packet of lozenges in a nod to her disastrous conference speech in October.
Mr Hammond said: ‘I did take the precaution of asking my Right Honorable Friend to bring a packet of cough sweets’.
Mrs May responded by waving them and handing them over, making many of her MPs roar with laughter.
In October the Prime Minister had wanted to use her set-piece speech to the Tory conference to launch a political fightback and drag the party on to the front foot after weeks of infighting.
Philip Hammond ribbed Theresa May and cracked a joke about needing throat sweets to get through his budget speech
But it became an extraordinary personal ordeal and her coughing fit so severe she temporarily lost her voice before a prankster gave her a P45 and parts of the set collapsed behind her.
Mr Hammond continued to throw jokes into his speech, focussing on former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale heading Down Under yesterday.
Pointing the finger at the party’s front bench he said: ‘If Labour carry on like this there’ll be a lot more people joining her saying: “I’m Labour, get me out of here”.
He also joked about Jeremy Clarkson’s disdain for Jeremy Corbyn in his section on driverless cars.
He said: ‘There is perhaps no technology as symbolic of the revolution gathering pace around us as driverless vehicles.
‘I know Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t like them but there are many other good reasons to pursue this technology so today we step up our support for it – Sorry Jeremy, not the first time you’ve been snubbed by Hammond and May.’
Mr Hammond continued to throw jokes into his speech, focussing on former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale heading Down Under yesterday to join I’m a Celebrity