Kemi Badenoch has suffered a blow to her authority after a Tory MP openly criticised her in the House of Commons and appeared to challenge her to suspend him.
The row erupted after the Conservative leader hit out at Keir Starmer for “evading” Prime Minister’s Questions, to attend the Nato and G7 summits.
Opposition MPs lined up to criticise the beleaguered Ms Badenoch, already under fire over her lacklustre leadership from some within her party.
However, in an extraordinary moment in the House of Commons, one of her own MPs, Conservative Mark Pritchard, openly criticised her, saying partisan politics should be kept out of national security issues.
He added: “Who knows, I may get the whip withdrawn for saying that, but so be it, there are things that go beyond party politics.”
Leaders in the Commons can suspend MPs from their party by removing the whip.
The punishment is serious, and is done only occasionally, as MPs who do not hold the whip cannot stand for their party when a general election is called.
The row erupted as Ms Badenoch faces growing criticism among her MPs for her handling of the leadership.
More and more Tory MPs talk privately about when she will leave the top job, rather than if, while even some of her closest allies admit she needs to get better at PMQs.
The latest row began after Mr Badenoch told Sir Keir he had “evaded Prime Minister’s Questions for two weeks, only to come back here to tell us what we already heard on the news”.
Responding, Sir Keir said: “There has never been a more important time to work with our allies, and to be absolutely serious in our response. That response was unserious…
“To suggest that at a time like this that the prime minister attending a G7 summit and the Nato summit is avoiding PMQs is unserious.”
He added: “For the leader of the Opposition to belittle it just shows how irrelevant she and the party opposite have become. They used to be serious about these issues, they used to be capable of cross-party consensus, and all of that is slipping away.”
He also claimed she would “never” become PM, adding: “If she did, the chair at the Nato summit would have a little sticky note on it, ‘I’m busy at PMQs’.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also criticised Mrs Badenoch, saying: “It is astonishing, and I share his surprise, that it’s now Conservative policy not to attend the G7 and Nato.”
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