Cabinet minister Michael Gove has suggested that Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner called the Conservatives “scum” last month because of her childhood in a poverty-stricken family.
“If you consider the circumstances under which she’s had to grow up, and what she’s achieved, then anyone can make a mistake,” Mr Gove told the Conservative Party’s conference in Manchester.
Ms Rayner has previously spoken about difficulties in her childhood and said that if she had grown up in “modern times” she “definitely” would have been taken away by social services.
It came as five people were arrested after former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith was allegedly assaulted by being hit on the head with a traffic cone.
Sir Iain said that he was pursued by a group on his way to a Brexit talk on the fringes of the conference on Monday afternoon.
