Cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom today refused to accept Jeremy Corbyn’s denial that he called Theresa May a “stupid woman”.
Senior Labour MPs backed Mr Corbyn who insisted that he mouthed “stupid people”, referring to Conservative MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions, rather than “stupid woman”, directed at Mrs May.
But the Commons Leader told ITV’S Good Morning Britain: “I think he said ‘stupid woman’ — that’s how it looked to me. Calling the Prime Minister a ‘stupid woman’ would be absolutely unacceptable. Muttering ‘stupid people’ I guess is less unacceptable.”
She added: “I’m not accusing him of something, I’m just telling you what I think he said.”
However, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, a close ally of Mr Corbyn, defended him, suggesting he would have apologised if he had used a derogatory term against Mrs May.
Pressed on the Radio 4 Today programme whether sorry was the “hardest word” for Mr Corbyn over the row, Ms Abbott said: “Jeremy is a very honest man and if he has anything to say sorry for he will always say sorry.”
Speaking to the Evening Standard later, she added: “Jeremy said that he said ‘people’ not ‘woman’ and that must be correct.”
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson added that Mr Corbyn had “denied using those words, and that is good enough for me”.
During the exchanges, Mrs Leadsom also accused Mr Bercow of previously calling her a “stupid woman”; he said this issue had already been addressed.
A senior No 10 source said that the Prime Minister understands that Mrs Leadsom feels very strongly about the way the Speaker behaved towards her, adding and “rightly so”.
