Kemi Badenoch and Bridget Phillipson clashed in parliament on Wednesday when the education secretary confronted the Tory leader in a heated exchange about her language during PMQs.
The leader of the opposition launched a scathing attack on Ms Phillipson in the chamber on Wednesday, branding her a “spiteful class warrior” and describing her as incompetent.
Ms Badenoch was scolded in the chamber for her language, but the row escalated after PMQs, when the pair were involved in a behind-the-scenes row – after which Ms Phillipson accused Ms Badenoch of having previously compared her to a Gestapo officer.
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The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, is understood to have told Ms Badenoch that what she had said was outrageous, as the trio met in the division lobby.
A Tory source said Ms Badenoch responded by telling the education secretary, “I’ll fight you all the way, you’re destroying children’s lives” – a reference to the imposition of VAT on private schools.
Other sources suggested Ms Badenoch had told Ms Phillipson: “You are spiteful. I’m never going to stop talking about how spiteful you are.”
Ms Phillipson is understood to have told the Tory leader: “The public are going to find out who you really are.”
The education secretary took to social media following the spat, writing: “Kemi lost her head at PMQs – and afterwards too.”
She also claimed that Ms Badenoch had previously compared to her to a Gestapo officer over her decision to introduce VAT on private school fees.
She wrote on X: “I wonder what it is about a working class woman driving record investment in state schools by ending private schools’ tax breaks that the Tories hate so much.”
The initial confrontation occurred during Ms Badenoch’s regular exchange with Sir Keir Starmer, in which she directly criticised the education secretary.
Ms Phillipson was seen shaking her head as Ms Badenoch claimed she had “taxed private schools to pay for more teachers, but the number of teachers has gone down”.
“It turns out appointing a spiteful class-warrior as education secretary was a disaster,” she said, while she also suggested that Sir Keir had been “let down by [Rachel Reeves’s] incompetence”.
Sir Keir defended members of his cabinet as they came under fire from Ms Badenoch in what was the outgoing prime minister’s first public appearance since Monday, when he announced his plan to resign.
He defended Ms Phillipson, saying she “grew up in poverty” and that her career had been an “incredible story of social mobility and success”.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle asked for a “little bit more decorum and respect” following Ms Badenoch’s comments.
A spokesperson for Ms Badenoch said she would “absolutely not” apologise for the language she had used during PMQs.
It is understood that the phrase Sir Lindsay objected to was “They don’t like it up ’em” – which Ms Badenoch had borrowed from the classic TV sitcom Dad’s Army.
The spokesperson said they thought Ms Badenoch had been nice to Sir Keir in the chamber, and that she felt sorry for him.
“There was very little aimed at the prime minister,” the spokesperson said. “This was about a cabinet which has let him down, about a group of Labour MPs who have let him down and now they’ve got rid of him.”