Tory MPs lashed out at under-pressure leader Kemi Badenoch today after she failed to hammer Labour over Angela Rayner's embarrassing tax admission.
Mrs Badenoch urged Sir Keir Starmer to show 'backbone' and sack his deputy at the start of Prime Minister's Questions, shortly after Ms Rayner admitted underpaying stamp duty on the purchase of a lavish second home by £40,000.
But standing just feet from Ms Rayner, the opposition leader used the rest of her questions to the PM to lambast him over the dire state of the economy, rather than attack Labour over the tax scandal.
Ms Badenoch's spokesman told reporters after PMQs that both were 'important stories' and said voters wanted to know what was happening to their bills, mortgages and taxes amid turmoil in the markets in recent days.
But she was forced to conduct a television interview about Ms Rayner after leaving the chamber to more forcefully ram home an attack.
