Badenoch Refuses Apology After Speaker Rebukes PMQs Attack on Labour's 400 "Knives"
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jun 24
Badenoch Refuses Apology After Speaker Rebukes PMQs Attack on Labour's 400 "Knives"
2 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jun 24
Summary
A Badenoch spokesman said "absolutely not" when asked if the Conservative leader would apologise after the Commons Speaker urged MPs to show more "decorum and respect" during a heated PMQs.
At the session, Badenoch said Labour MPs were cheering Keir Starmer with "400 knives stuck in his back", called some "traitors and deserters", and branded Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson a "spiteful class warrior".
The clash spilled into the division lobbies and onto X, where Phillipson said Badenoch had "lost her head" and Badenoch replied that growing up on a council estate was "not an excuse for failure".
The row came in the first PMQs since Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, with Andy Burnham widely seen as the frontrunner to replace him as prime minister as early as next month.