Sir James Cleverly has said he would not have compared a government minister to a Gestapo officer, distancing himself from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch's Nazi analogy aimed at Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
Badenoch made the remark earlier this month while criticising the government's decision to end a tax exemption for private schools, telling the Spectator that Phillipson had "acted like a Gestapo officer". The comment drew heavy criticism from Labour, with Phillipson saying it showed Badenoch was "not fit to be prime minister".
“Sir James Cleverly says he would not have used the Nazi comparison made by Kemi Badenoch against Bridget Phillipson.”
Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, the shadow housing secretary was pressed on whether he would have used the same language. "No, I probably wouldn't have done," Cleverly said. He went on to defend the thrust of Badenoch's attack, arguing that the education secretary's policy was "about punishing people who spend their own money to send their children to private school" rather than raising money for teachers.
Cleverly said: "The point is Bridget Phillipson has pursued an agenda which has nothing to do with raising money, nothing to do with recruiting teachers, it is about punishing people who spend their own money to send their children to private school." Asked again if the language was appropriate, he replied: "So that wouldn't have been the phraseology that I use, but you can see Kemi's explanation there."
The Conservative leader has not apologised. At Prime Minister's Questions earlier this week, she described Phillipson as a "spiteful class warrior". The Conservatives have accused Labour of targeting families with children at private schools with VAT to raise money for more teachers, while instead overseeing a fall in teacher numbers.
Cleverly also highlighted a separate row involving Phillipson, who called for Tory MP Nick Timothy to be sacked after he described a Muslim religious gathering in central London in March as an "act of domination". Phillipson labelled his comments "racist". Timothy denied the accusation.
"When Kemi highlights the fact that these policies are vindictive and they are about class war rather than recruiting teachers, she gets vilified by the Labour Party," Cleverly said. "And when people in the Labour Party, literally minutes earlier, describe a Conservative MP as being racist, no-one seems to bat an eyelid."
Pressed on whether politicians have a duty to maintain a respectful tone, Cleverly defended the robustness of political debate, saying: "We have a robust democracy and I think one of the dangers in a desire to be collegiate and calm is the voters think that we are not holding each other to account. So I do think we need to be robust."