Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has announced she will be immortalizing Kemi Badenoch's parliamentary insult on a T-shirt, proving that the best defense is a well-branded offense. During Prime Minister's Questions, the Conservative leader called Phillipson a 'spiteful class warrior' for taxing private school fees - a move she claimed was meant to fund more teachers in state schools, though teacher numbers have actually fallen by nearly 2,000 since last year.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Phillipson declared: 'Next time you see me, Nick, I'll be wearing a T-shirt saying "spiteful class warrior" - because if being a spiteful class warrior means lifting half a million children out of poverty, I'll be wearing that T-shirt with pride.' The reference was to Labour's child poverty plan, which includes scrapping the two-child benefits cap, expanding free childcare and free school meals, and creating 3,000 extra nursery places.

The war of words escalated after PMQs, with both politicians doubling down on social media and in subsequent interviews. Badenoch refused to apologize, noting she had also called Phillipson 'incompetent' in the Commons - an insult the education secretary apparently found less offensive. 'She could dish it out but can't take it,' Badenoch told reporters.

Phillipson also faced questions about her own rhetoric, having accused shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy of racism for describing a mass Muslim public prayer in Trafalgar Square as an 'act of domination and division.' When asked if that was hypocritical given her calls for toning down political discourse, she stood firm: 'It was racist, he should be ashamed of himself, and he should have been sacked.'

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander have rallied to Phillipson's defense, with Alexander noting the cabinet is 'the most state-schooled in the post-war era' and motivated by tackling poverty, not spite. The Department for Education has been approached for comment, presumably to confirm T-shirt sizes.