Kemi Badenoch has launched an extraordinary personal attack on Rachel Reeves just moments after the chancellor delivered her widely anticipated Budget, accusing her of “whining” over misogyny claims.
The Conservative leader diverted from criticising Labour’s raft of tax hikes on Wednesday to tell MPs the chancellor was “wallowing in self-pity”.
Responding to the chancellor’s wide-ranging economic announcement, Ms Badenoch told the Commons, “people are not complaining because she is female, they are complaining because she is utterly incompetent”.
It comes after Ms Reeves, who is the UK’s first female chancellor, called out “misogynistic” criticism she faced in the build-up to the Budget, telling The Times she was “sick of people mansplaining how to be chancellor to me”.
Following her comments, former home secretary and now Tory backbencher James Cleverley said Ms Reeves was “right” about misogyny in politics while discussing on Times Radio the “abuse” he has seen his female colleagues endure.
But on Wednesday, the Tory leader chose to take aim at Ms Reeves personally, saying her comments show “a woman wallowing in self-pity, whining about mansplaining and misogyny”.
“Real equality means being held to the same standards as everyone else, being judged on results. She says she wants people to respect her: respect is earned,” Ms Badenoch said.
She later asked if Sir Keir Starmer was “mansplaining” and if she “needed help” as the two were caught in discussions while Ms Badenoch responded to the Budget.
Ms Reeves was subject to intense scrutiny in the run-up to the autumn Budget as questions loomed over how she would fill the £20bn black hole in public finances. Commentators handed her nicknames, including “Rachel from accounts” and “Rachel from complaints”, as she geared up for the economic announcement widely touted as “make-or-break” for her career.
Speaking to The Times last week, she acknowledged she still feels the need to prove herself to the “boys who now write newspaper columns” as Britain’s first female chancellor.
Asked whether that spurs her on, she said: “Yeah, a bit. I recognise that I’ve got a target on me. You can see that in the media; they’re going for me all the time. It’s exhausting.
“But I’m not going to let them bring me down by undermining my character or my confidence. I’ve seen off a lot of those boys before – and I’ll continue to do so.”
She also faced criticism after she was seen crying during PMQs earlier this year – an incident that she later said was linked to a “personal issue”.
Ms Badenoch hit out at her show of emotion at the time, reposting Conservative MP Claire Coutinho’s tweet, which said if a chief executive or military chief had cried in public, they “would not be forgiven” for it.
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