Lisa Nandy gave Nadhim Zahawi a backhanded compliment on BBC Question Time on Thursday by telling him “no-one could be worse” than his predecessor.
Zahawi was the vaccines minister until prime minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last month saw him promoted to education secretary, while Gavin Williamson was booted out.
Talking to Zahawi, shadow foreign secretary Nandy said: ”You’re new into the post as education secretary, and I was extremely pleased to see you in that job, not least because you cannot be worse than your predecessor.”
Question Time host Fiona Bruce said: “Gosh, that is damningly faint praise.”
Nandy continued, undeterred: “But if you want to level up this country, you have invest in its people.
“And when you’re spending more in eat out to help out than you are on helping our children catch up on their education over the summer holidays after the worst global pandemic in a century, you really have to wonder where your priorities are, we need to see real action, not just more slogans from this government.”
Williamson became particularly infamous during his time as education secretary, although he had already developed a certain reputation during his stints as defence secretary and chief whip.
He was particularly known for PR gaffes – and recently forgot his own A-levels while live on the radio – but he became particularly unpopular over his handling of the education sector during the pandemic.
In August last year, exam season was in chaos as students had been unable to sit for their usual assessments due to lockdown. Thousands missed out on places at university before the then-education secretary backed down and accept teachers’ grades for pupils.
Last December, he got into a futile fight with a council after it advised schools to close early for Christmas – even though Covid cases were soaring at the time – and threatened legal action.
Williamson also faced allegations of racism after getting footballer and anti-child poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford confused with rugby player Maro Itoje.
