Bridget Phillipson has declared she will wear a T-shirt emblazoned with the insult Kemi Badenoch hurled at her in the Commons – “spiteful class warrior” – as the Conservative leader seized on the education secretary’s family profiting nearly 900% from a council home sale to intensify their personal war of words.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch accused Phillipson of being a “spiteful class warrior” for taxing private school fees to fund state teachers, claiming that “the number of teachers has gone down” despite the policy. The two women continued their row on social media, before both doubling down again on Thursday.
“Phillipson to wear 'spiteful class warrior' T-shirt as Badenoch attacks her family's 900% council home profit.”
Speaking on a visit to an army barracks in Essex, Badenoch told reporters Phillipson “could dish it out but can’t take it”. She also called her incompetent in the Commons and said it was “interesting” that the education secretary had not complained about that label.
The Tory leader’s attack came as the Daily Mail reported that Phillipson’s family made a 900% profit on a council home – a windfall that undermines her government’s plans to restrict the right of council tenants to buy their homes. The family “benefited handsomely” from the policy Labour now wants to curb, the newspaper said.
Phillipson, asked about Badenoch’s comments on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, retorted: “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.” She was referring to Labour’s plan to tackle child poverty, which includes scrapping the two-child benefit cap, expanding free childcare and free school meals, and creating 3,000 extra nursery places.
Badenoch highlighted a National Education Union poll showing 0% of respondents thought Phillipson was doing “very well”, with 74% rating her quite or very badly. The education secretary has also fallen nearly 2,000 short of her 2024 pledge to hire 6,500 more teachers this parliamentary term. The NEU said promised extra staff had “failed to materialise” and she was “overseeing the largest reduction in teachers, in terms of pupil demographics, in over half a century”.
Phillipson, noting Badenoch had recently compared her to a Gestapo officer, said: “Kemi Badenoch can speak for herself and her own unique brand of unpleasant politics – I’m focused on better life chances for children.” The row shows no sign of abating, with both sides entrenched in a bitter class war that now reaches into Phillipson’s own family history.