Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has told the BBC she will be turning Kemi Badenoch’s attack on her at Prime Minister’s Questions into a T-shirt.
The Conservative leader called Phillipson a “spiteful class warrior” for taxing private school fees, claiming this was to pay for more teachers in state schools “but the number of teachers has gone down”.
Sir Keir Starmer defended Phillipson, saying he was “proud” that she was his education secretary – but the two women exchanged harsh words after PMQs and continued their row on social media.
Badenoch’s latest post doubled down, telling Phillipson: “You are sacrificing the future of generations of kids on the altar of your class envy.”
Badenoch was attacking Phillipson for Labour axing the historic VAT exemption for private schools and introducing a 20% rate, expected to raise £9bn for the education budget, but not ringfenced for hiring teachers specifically.
However, there is an ongoing teacher recruitment crisis, with the number of teachers shrinking by 2,000 in the last year, according to the latest government statistics.
The Tory leader also highlighted a poll this week from 4,000 National Education Union members, which showed 0% of respondents, external thought Phillipson was doing “very well” in the role, with 74% responding either quite or very badly.
Asked about Badenoch’s comments by Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Phillipson said: “Next time you see me, Nick, I’ll be wearing a T-shirt saying ‘spiteful class warrior’ – because if being a spiteful class warrior means lifting half a million children out of poverty I’ll be wearing that T-shirt with pride.”
The education secretary was referring to Labour’s plan to tackle child poverty, external, which included scrapping the two-child benefits cap, expanding free childcare and free school meals, and creating 3,000 extra nursery places.
Phillipson said Badenoch had recently compared her to a Gestapo officer and added: “Kemi Badenoch can speak for herself and her own unique brand of unpleasant politics – I’m focused on better life chances for children.
“I think you’re losing the argument when you reduce yourself to that level of abuse.”
Deputy prime minister David Lammy has defended Phillipson in the row and Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “Like Bridget, I’m proudly state-schooled: we’re the most state-schooled cabinet in the post-war era.
“We’re not motivated by spite but by tackling poverty and extending opportunity.”
Phillipson was pressed on whether she had crossed a line herself, by accusing Conservative shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy of racism for describing a mass Muslim public prayer in Trafalgar Square as an “act of domination and division”.
In March, Sir Keir had called on Badenoch to sack Timothy for the comments at PMQs, claiming they showed her party had a “problem with Muslims”.
Phillipson had reignited that row ahead of PMQs on Wednesday morning’s education questions, external, in response to a question from shadow women and equalities minister Claire Coutinho raising concerns about the policing of criticism of Islam.
The education secretary responded: “We have seen shocking examples of Muslims in our country being targeted on the basis of their faith and because of who they are.
“We need look no further than [Nick Timothy], who engaged in appalling racism towards Muslims in our country and, rather shamefully, was not sacked by the Leader of the Opposition for those comments.”
Asked by Robinson whether labelling Timothy racist was hypocritical when she wanted to tone down political discourse, Phillipson said: “It was racist, he should be ashamed of himself, and he should have been sacked.
“If you want robust political debate, I’m here for that every day of the week, but I think reducing this to Nazi analogies, reducing it to that level of highly personalised abuse, I think says more about Kemi Badenoch than anybody else”.
Timothy denies his comments are racist.
