Kemi Badenoch refuses to apologise amid growing row after calling Bridget Phillipson a 'spiteful class warrior'
Yesterday The Education Secretary told LBC Mrs Badenoch was “perpetually angry” and had been “getting worse every week”.
Kemi Badenoch has declined to apologies after calling Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson a “spiteful class warrior”.
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The two politicians clashed in Parliament on Wednesday, with Mrs Badenoch’s jibe during Prime Minister’s Questions sparking a behind-the-scenes incident that led Ms Phillipson to accuse the Tory leader of having “lost her head”.
During her regular exchange with Sir Keir Starmer, Mrs Badenoch had said Ms Phillipson “taxed private schools to pay for more teachers but the number of teachers has gone down”.
“It turns out appointing a spiteful class warrior as Education Secretary was a disaster,” she said, suggesting Sir Keir had been “let down by her incompetence”.
Sources said the pair later exchanged further hostile words in the division lobby.
Today Mrs Badenoch said she would not apologise for her remarks.
She said: “Yesterday I said that Bridget Phillipson was spiteful and incompetent.
“It’s interesting that she hasn’t complained about being incompetent, and Keir Starmer didn’t say that she was competent.”
She claimed Ms Phillipson’s imposition of VAT on private schools had “displaced” 40,000 pupils through school closures or because their parents could no longer afford the fees.
And she said the Education Secretary had failed to deliver the extra 6,500 teachers promised in Labour’s manifesto, saying there were 2,000 fewer teachers than when the party came to power.
She said: “We have gone backwards both years she has been Education Secretary.
“That is a failure. It is my job as leader of the opposition to hold her to account.”
Mrs Badenoch also said Ms Phillipson had been “rude” about the shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, calling him “a racist” shortly before Prime Minister’s Questions.
During an earlier questions session in the Commons, Ms Phillipson said Mr Timothy had “engaged in appalling racism towards Muslims in our country”, referring to the shadow justice secretary’s previous complaints about Muslims praying in public.
The row is the latest in a long-running feud between Mrs Badenoch and Ms Phillipson.
In an interview with the Spectator earlier this month, the Tory leader compared the Education Secretary’s imposition of VAT on private schools to the actions of a “Gestapo officer”, referring to Nazi Germany’s secret police.
On Wednesday, Ms Phillipson told LBC Mrs Badenoch was “perpetually angry” and had been “getting worse every week”.
She said: “If I was going to say something, it would probably be pretty foul-mouthed, so it’s best to rise above it, best to be the bigger person.”