The television presenter Carol Vorderman has launched an attack on the women’s health minister, accusing her of lying.
Vorderman claimed that Maria Caulfield had failed to turn up for a hearing of the women and equalities committee and had made misleading claims about her failure to attend.
In turn, Caulfield accused Vorderman of treating her like a “punch bag” saying she did not have to tolerate her behaviour.
She was backed by Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, who described Vorderman’s comments as a “confected and false campaign against a very decent and hard-working minister”.
The row started after Caulfield told the women and equalities committee that she would be unable to attend a scheduled hearing to discuss help for women in work who were suffering from side-effects from the menopause.
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She said that she had offered alternative dates when she could appear before the committee. But Vorderman, who did attend as patron of campaign group Menopause Mandate, told the committee that Caulfield couldn’t be “bothered to turn up”.
She later claimed on Twitter that she had seen the minister in the Commons an hour before the hearing.
“The lying minister who couldn’t be bothered to turn up was having a cup of tea in the canteen an hour beforehand. We saw her,” she wrote. “That’s not much of an example is it?” she said.
But in an exchange with Vorderman, Caulfield categorically denied her claims and said she was being unfairly attacked.
“I am not a punch bag and if you post misleading information about me you will be blocked,” she wrote.
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“Either you want a meaningful discussion on Twitter or you just want to abuse me. You can’t do both and I don’t have to tolerate the latter.
“I couldn’t attend yesterday as I was seeing women campaigners against painful hysteroscopy which had been in the diary for months. I have given alternative dates to the committee and they are the facts.”
She was later backed by Mordaunt after Caulfield’s non-appearance was raised by Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow leader of the Commons. “Ministers must prioritise appearances before committees. It is not an optional extra as she fancies it, or something to squeeze in if there is time in her diary,” Debbonaire said.
But Mordaunt insisted that a diary clash meant she had been unable to attend and criticised the abuse she had suffered.
“It is deeply ironic and shocking that people have been so quick to paint an incorrect picture about our female colleagues in the wake of International Women’s Day,” she said.
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She later added on Twitter: “This confected and false campaign against a very decent and hardworking minister (is) horrible stuff and deeply ironic given recent efforts from all sides to encourage women to run for office.”
During her evidence session, Vorderman also criticised Kemi Badenoch, the women and equalities minister, who claimed that the Labour MP Carolyn Harris was “speaking from a left-wing perspective” when she called for a pilot on menopause leave.
Vorderman said Badenoch had been “patronising” and “insulting” during a discussion about whether the menopause should be a protected characteristic, in which the minister had compared the request to others made by carers, single people or those who had ginger hair or were short.
“This was like going back 100 years to when women just had the vote,” Vorderman said.
“Women make up almost half of the workforce. And yet, these are the two women in government who are meant to be representing the female population. I was disgusted to be perfectly honest, by both of them, absolutely disgusted.”
