The Prime Minister thought it was going so well, opening the exchanges by congratulating Donald Trump on his US election victory.
He spoke fondly of having dinner with the Republican a couple of months back and said he looked forward to working with him in the years to come.
But Ms Badenoch was having none of it, immediately demanding Sir Keir apologise for “derogatory and scatological” remarks made by him and other senior Labour figures about the President-elect.
Leaning forward on the despatch box she pointed to comments made by Foreign Secretary David Lammy who had described Trump as a “Neo-Nazi sympathiser”.
And she scorched the PM over Labour MPs and staffers helping to campaign for Democrat candidate Kamala Harris.
Starmer was left flailing such was the ferocity of the Badenoch blitz.
Strikingly dressed in Thatcher-blue, the new party darling had Tory MPs in full voice.
So much so, her predecessor Iain Duncan Smith was turning up the volume like it was 2003 all over again.
Conservative grandees Theresa May and Norman Lamont, watching from the Peers gallery, were lapping it up.
To be fair to the Prime Minister he managed to steady himself, trading blows with his opposite number over the Budget and farming matters.
Mrs Badenoch called Sir Keir out on his “scripted” answers over Labour’s betrayal of farmers.
Labour MPs responded loudly with a wall of farmyard noises.
So there we have it – the son of a toolmaker vs the engineer was quite the industrial battle.
As Sir Keir repeatedly warbled on about “fixing the foundations” Tory MP’s might possibly have a new Iron Lady on their hands.
