A Tory MP used a debate on training and skills to slam Carol Vorderman, in an increasing war of words between the Conservatives and the former Countdown star.
Siobhan Baillie argued in favour of training and apprenticeships to improve social mobility, and criticised people such as Carol Vorderman who look down on those without a degree.
Four days ago Ms Vorderman celebrated polling showing Tory minister Johnny Mercer is set to lose his seat at the general election.
She attacked Mr Mercer and his wife, saying: “Not a degree in sight in spite of expensive private education! So who’d employ them?”
Ms Baillie said “snobbery about further education and having no degree continues to this day”.
“To see that we need only look at Carol Vorderman’s attack on my right hon. Friend [Johnny Mercer] and his wife,”
The MP for Stroud said Ms Vorderman’s attack was the “latest example of nonsense” in which she dismissed the Minister for “not having gone to university”.
Ms Baillie added she had been “deliberately condescending about the lives of millions of people who did not go to university is unforgivable”.
She accused Ms Vorderman of deciding to ‘eat so much political hate for breakfast to get social media hits’, and noted that while she “used to admire Carol Vorderman a lot… now, sadly, I just feel sorry for her”.
Ms Vorderman’s post on Twitter split opinion between those enjoying her radical attacks on the Government, and those who accused her of being snobby.
It was also pointed out the TV star only managed to get a third-class degree from her time at university.
While Ms Vorderman has not responded directly to Ms Baillie’s words in the Commons last night, she did tweet yesterday afternoon that the reaction to her attack must mean she’s “doing something right”.
She claimed her tweet is being “twisted by the Tories today into trying to label me an education ‘snob”….what a joke…”
“Always a believer in encouraging young people to achieve their best, in whichever way that comes around, to be strong and happy and confident.
“Anything else being espoused is offensive, targeted, predictable Right Wing nonsense.”
Ms Vorderman previously endorsed the Conservatives and their education policy at the 2010 election.
