A senior Tory MP has taken an astonishing swipe at Kemi Badenoch after she accused Keir Starmer of dodging prime minister鈥檚 questions.
The opposition leader said Starmer had 鈥渆vaded鈥 PMQs for the last two weeks, when he has been attending the G7 and Nato summits abroad.
In response, a clearly-angry PM accused Badenoch of being 鈥渦nserious鈥 at a time of huge global instability.
He said: 鈥淭here鈥檚 never been a more important time to work with our allies and to be absolutely serious in our response. That response was unserious. Unserious.
鈥淭o suggest at a time like this that the prime minister attending the G7 summit and the Nato summit is avoiding PMQs is unserious.鈥
Later during the same Commons debate, Mark Pritchard, the Conservative MP for The Wrekin, attacked his own leader over her comments.
He said: 鈥淲hilst we may disagree on the detail, can I agree with the prime minister that as far as possible in this place, it would be best to keep partisan politics out of national security issues.
鈥淲ho knows, I may get the party whip withdrawn for saying it, but so be it. There are things that go beyond party politics.鈥
His attack is a further blow for Badenoch, who is under pressure over her lacklustre performance since becoming Tory leader last November.
A new opinion poll showed that the Conservatives would be left with just 46 MPs if a general election was held tomorrow.
A Tory source told HuffPost UK: 鈥淭his is a government paralysed on the global stage by its own legal advice, paralysed at home by its rebellious backbenchers, and paralysed in Whitehall by fear of being found out for having no real vision for the country. It goes beyond party politics to being important to the country for the Conservatives to point this out.鈥