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Kemi Badenoch’s PMQs drive-by today rattled Cabinet ministers so much that they carried on squabbling after the curtain had fallen. The Tory leader took absolutely no prisoners as she used the weekly Commons clash to lay into not just Sir Keir Starmer, but those close – and formerly close – to him too.
When it came to Bridget Phillipson, the Conservative leader was masterfully brutal. She blasted:
Yesterday a poll found that zero per cent of teachers think the Education Secretary is doing a good job, zero per cent. She taxed private schools to pay for more teachers but the number of teachers that has gone down. It turns out appointing a spiteful class warrior as Education Secretary was a disaster. Does the Prime Minister agree that he has been let down by her incompetence?
Sir Keir tried a more graceful riposte, saying Phillipson ‘grew up in poverty’ and was ‘an incredible story of social mobility and success’. But his staunch defence did little to calm tensions. After PMQs, the Education Secretary, flanked by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, accosted Badenoch.
