Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly.James Cleverly has refused to back Kemi Badenoch after she compared education secretary Bridget Phillipson to a Nazi.
The Tory leader said the cabinet minister “has acted like a Gestapo officer” by ending a tax break for private schools, which has led to some being forced to close due to falling pupil numbers.
She said: “I compared her to a Gestapo officer, acting like a Gestapo officer, with the way she was closing down those schools which didn’t appeal to her own ideology.”
Responding on X, Phillipson said: “The Gestapo marched hundreds of thousands of innocent people to their deaths. I’ve ended private schools’ tax breaks to invest in state schools.
“No responsible leader makes vile comparisons like this. Kemi Badenoch is not fit to be Prime Minister.”
On BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, shadow housing secretary Cleverly distanced himself from Badenoch’s choice of language.
Asked by presenter Victoria Derbyshire if he would have made that comparison, he said: “No I probably wouldn’t have done.”
Later in the interview, he said: “That wouldn’t have been the phraseology that I would use.”
Labour chair Anna Turley said: “Kemi’s top team won’t defend the indefensible because they know full well Kemi Badenoch’s comments were completely appalling and deeply inappropriate.
“Time and again Badenoch sinks below the standards the public rightly expect from a Leader of His Majesty’s opposition. The simple fact is she’s not up to the job.”
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