Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has told the BBC she plans to turn Kemi Badenoch's attack at Prime Minister's Questions into a T-shirt, after the Conservative leader branded her a "spiteful class warrior" for taxing private school fees.
The exchange erupted at PMQs on Wednesday when Badenoch accused Phillipson of using the revenue from ending the VAT exemption on private schools to hire more teachers, but claimed teacher numbers had actually fallen. Government statistics show teacher numbers dropped by just under 2,000 since last year, though the pupil-teacher ratio remained unchanged as pupil rolls have also fallen.
“Bridget Phillipson says she will wear 'spiteful class warrior' T-shirt after Badenoch attack.”
Badenoch also seized on a poll of 4,000 National Education Union members in which 0% said Phillipson was doing "very well" and 74% said she was doing either quite or very badly. The Tory leader further criticised the education secretary for falling nearly 2,000 short of her 2024 pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers this parliamentary term. The NEU said the promised extra staff had "failed to materialise" and that Phillipson was instead "overseeing the largest reduction in teachers, in terms of pupil demographics, in over half a century".
The two women continued their row on social media and doubled down again on Thursday. Asked if she would apologise, Badenoch told reporters Phillipson "could dish it out but can't take it", adding that she had also called the education secretary incompetent in the Commons and it was "interesting" that Phillipson had not complained about that.
Phillipson responded on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "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.
Phillipson also noted that Badenoch had recently compared her to a Gestapo officer, adding: "Kemi Badenoch can speak for herself and her own unique brand of unpleasant politics - I'm focused on better life chances for children."