Tributes were paid to the former Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and her love of a blowdry in Parliament’s hairdressers, after she lost her seat at the General Election.

Shadow Commons leader Chris Philp joked that his “short back and sides” would not compare to Ms Mordaunt’s “renowned” blow-dried haircut.

Ms Mordaunt narrowly lost her Portsmouth North constituency, where she had served since 2010, by just 780 votes.

Speaking during business questions, Commons Leader Lucy Powell said she believed that Ms Mordaunt was “an underused asset” by the Tory party.

On Thursday, Mr Philp said: “Now looking at Hansard at previous exchanges, I noticed the leader in the final business question of the last parliament, when she was shadow, paid tribute to Penny’s renowned, formidable, blow-dried haircut.

“I can only apologise to the House that my own short back and sides is nothing by comparison. I know colleagues on all sides will miss Penny, wish her well, and hope she returns here before too long.”

Ms Powell said: “We also lost some good colleagues at this election from all sides and I’d like to also pay tribute to my predecessor Penny Mordaunt, who was always a worthy opponent across the despatch box.

“She brought a fresh approach not only to this role, but as the first (female) defence secretary. I always thought she was an underused asset by the party opposite and she will be missed, especially by the parliamentary hairdressers.”

Elsewhere in the session, Ms Powell compared the influx of new MPs in Parliament to a freshers week at Hogwarts.

She said: “It’s been a real pleasure to see the excitement and possibilities of the new members, half of the house now new, finding their way around this often baffling maze of a place. I saw one describe it as being like freshers week meets Hogwarts and Buckingham Palace. Let’s hope they don’t all drop down with freshers’ flu.”

Earlier, Mr Philp claimed the economy is in “fantastic condition”, adding: “Inflation is down to 2%, lower than the eurozone and lower than the US, wage growth by contrast is much higher at 6%, unemployment is low, half the level left behind by the last Labour government, and the UK’s economic growth so far this year is the highest in the G7.”

Ms Powell replied: “After such a resounding defeat at the ballot box I don’t think his best advice is to start saying that the record was actually great all along, or that their policies were actually the best ones that we should all be following.

“On the economic record, the truth is that living standards fell over the last Parliament for the first time in record. He was chief secretary to the Treasury when the former prime minister Liz Truss crashed the economy sending mortgage rates soaring.

“And since we’ve come into Government, we’ve actually discovered that things are even worse than we thought.”