Former Tory education secretary Gillian Keegan has said that she meant what she said about people needing to be grateful for the “f*****g good job” she had done while others had “sat on their a***s and done nothing” before.
Ms Keegan, who was a senior member of Rishi Sunak’s government before losing her Chichester seat in last year’s general election, was reflecting on her life in politics with ex-Labour MPs Jon Ashworth and Gloria De Piero on their Politics Inside Out podcast.
The interview, which will be available from Thursday morning, addressed an embarrassing moment in 2023 when she thought the camera was off after speaking to ITV News about the Raac concrete scandal and crumbling schools.
In a moment of frustration, she said: “Does anyone ever say ‘you know what, you’ve done a f****** good job because everyone else has sat on their a*** and done nothing?”
The comments were taken as Ms Keegan casting aspersions at her predecessors in the education secretary job and she was later made to apologise.
But addressing the issue on the podcast, she confessed: “I meant it.”
Ms De Piero likened it to another so-called hot mic moment in 2010 when Gordon Brown was caught describing pensioner Gillian Duffy as “that bigoted woman” on live TV while wearing a Sky News microphone which he thought was off.
Ms Keegan said: “Actually, to be honest, you've just mentioned Gordon Brown and Gillian Duffy. If I'd have said what he said, I'd be devastated, because it was being nasty about someone.
“This was me. This was so authentic. I mean literally, that is so me and and I meant it. And actually, I wasn't talking people kind of said, ‘Oh, it's about you.’
Ms Keegan also made a point of singling out respected former schools minister Nick Gibb, who served for seven years in the role, for knowing more than most of the civil servants.
But looking back, the ex-education secretary – who voted against both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in the 2019 and 2022 leadership campaigns – also called for a change in the rules around who can lead the party.
She noted that both the Tories and Labour had been stuck with the wrong person in recent times as leader because members had been allowed to make the final selection. She wants MPs only to choose, especially if a parliament is in government.
Speaking about the current member voting systems, she said: .”Those systems have led to the wrong outcome. They led to Jeremy Corbyn being the leader of the Labour Party. They led to Liz Truss being chosen over Rishi Sunak and. And they've led to some, in my view, to people who are not the right person to be prime minister.”
The full interview on the Politics Inside Out podcast is available from Thursday morning,
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