Education secretary says she’ll turn Tory leader’s insult into a T-shirt
Education Minister Bridget Phillipson told the BBC she would turn Kemi Badenoch’s attack on her into a t-shirt on Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Conservative leader called Phillipson a “vindictive class warrior” for taxing private school fees, claiming the aim was to pay more teachers in state schools “but there are fewer teachers”.
Sir Keir Starmer defended Phillipson and said he was “proud” to have him as education minister; However, the two women exchanged harsh words after the PMQs and continued their fight on social media.
Badenoch’s final post told Phillipson: “You are sacrificing the future of generations of children on the altar of your class jealousy.”
Badenoch was attacking Phillipson for Labor by scrapping the historic VAT exemption for private schools and introducing a 20% rate, which is expected to raise £9bn for the education budget but is not capped on privately recruiting teachers.
However, there is an ongoing teacher recruitment crisis, with teacher numbers falling by 2,000 last year according to the latest government statistics.
Asked about Badenoch’s comments on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Phillipson said: “Next time you see me, Nick, I’ll be wearing a T-shirt that says ‘vindictive class warrior’ – because if being a vindictive class warrior means lifting half a million children out of poverty, I’ll wear that T-shirt with pride.”
The education minister was talking about Labour’s plan fighting child poverty, externalThis included removing the two-child benefit limit, expanding free childcare and free school meals, and creating 3,000 extra nursery places.
Phillipson said Badenoch had recently compared himself to a Gestapo officer and added: “Kemi Badenoch can speak for herself and her particular brand of nasty politics; I am focused on better life opportunities for children.
“I think you lose the argument when you reduce yourself to that much abuse.”
Phillipson, who accused Conservative shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy of racism for describing a public mass prayer of Muslims in Trafalgar Square as “an act of domination and division”, was pressed on whether he too had crossed the line.
In March, Sir Keir called on Badenoch to sack Timothy over his comments at PMQs, claiming they showed his party had a “problem with Muslims”.
Phillipson had reignited this debate before the PMQs. Wednesday morning training questions, externalIn response to a question from Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Claire Coutinho, who expressed concerns about moderating criticism of Islam.
The education minister responded: “We have seen shocking examples of Muslims in our country being targeted because of their faith and identity.
“We don’t need to look elsewhere [Nick Timothy]”He has engaged in appalling racism against Muslims in our country and, quite shamefully, he has not been sacked by the Leader of the Opposition for his comments.”
Asked by Robinson whether it was hypocritical to label Timothy a racist when he wanted to tone down political discourse, Phillipson responded: “He was a racist, he should be ashamed of himself and should be removed from office.
“If you want a robust political debate, I’m here for that every day of the week, but I think reducing it to Nazi analogies, to the level of highly personalized abuse, says more about Kemi Badenoch than anyone else, I think.”
Timothy denies his comments were racist.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy defended Phillipson in the row, and Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “Like Bridget, I am proud to be state-educated: we are the most state-educated cabinet in the post-war period.”
“We are motivated by fighting poverty and expanding opportunity, not by grudges.”
