Kemi Badenoch 'perpetually angry' and 'keeps getting worse' Bridget Phillipson tells LBC after PMQs row

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Speaking to LBC's Andrew Marr, Ms Phillipson added the Tory leader had been "getting worse every week" and that she chose to "be the bigger person" by not rising to the rebuke.

She went on to describe the awkward moment when she and Liz Kendall, the technology minister, bumped into Ms Badenoch as they were leaving the House of Commons.

"There was a vote in the lobbies around the chamber. So Liz and I just happened to be stood next to each other going in to vote as Kemi was coming the other way, presumably having voted," she told Marr.

"And I had no intention of speaking to Kemi. Liz said something to the effect of, that was totally out of order and outrageous.

"And Kemi just said to me, you are spiteful, I'm going to keep saying you're spiteful. And flounced off."

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The Conservative Opposition leader made the personal comments during a fiery session of Prime Ministers Questions while criticising the Labour government's policy of levying 20% VAT on private school fees from 2025.

She said that Ms Philipson had let Sir Keir Starmer down with her "incompetence" and added: “It turns out appointing a spiteful class warrior as education secretary was a disaster.”

The comments drew the criticism of the Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who urged Ms Badenoch to moderate her language.

Brushing off the rebuke, Ms Phillipson told Marr that "if being a spiteful class warrior means improving the lives of children across our country, if that means lifting half a million children out of poverty, rolling out free breakfast clubs, more apprenticeship starts for young people, then I will proudly wear that badge.

"In fact, I'm gonna go and get myself a t-shirt saying spiteful class warrior."

Asked if Ms Badenoch had crossed a line during the session, Ms Phillipson said the Tory leader had been "getting worse every week".

"And look, I'm here for lively debate, robust challenge. I can dish it out and I can take it, but I think there's a line... I just think Nazi comparisons and that level of abuse is not becoming of our politics."

She went on: "She's perpetually angry....what I did say to her subsequently, as she walked away, not allowing me the time to actually respond, was that the public will see her for who she really is, and they will."

Ms Phillpson said she "had to bite my tongue" after the Tory leader's rebuke.

"I'm not going to sink to her level...If I was going to say something, it'd be probably pretty foul-mouthed, so it's best just to— best to rise above it, best to be the bigger person."