Dominic Raab has doubled down on mocking Angela Rayner’s trip to the opera - despite her branding him a “snob”.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he was right to brand his Labour rival a “champagne socialist” for attending East Sussex's Glyndebourne opera house during a rail strike.
Ms Rayner last night said “snobbery follows me around like a bad smell” and accused Mr Raab of “sneerily questioning” why she had gone.
She added: “The Deputy Prime Minister appears to think opera isn’t for people like me - and there’s a snobbery around the attitude of Boris Johnson ’s Conservatives.
“It’s not only sad, it’s embarrassing for our country. Working class people the length and breadth of Britain face outdated attitudes every single day, being constantly looked down on and told they’re not good enough.”
Asked by Times Radio if he was a ‘snob’ Mr Raab replied: “No. I think if you're self styled class warrior in the mould that Angie presents herself, if you've taken almost £8,000 in donations from the RMT since your election in 2015, if your comrades have been on the picket line with RMT on that night you're listening to opera and sipping champagne, I think you can expect a bit of gentle teasing.
“The issue is not whether people should enjoy champagne or Opera.
“The issue is whether the self-styled class warrior, tub thumping Tory bashing, at the time when RMT is on the picket line and Labour MPs are joining them, has actually ducked out of it and is sipping champagne.
“And the point I made is that… via Angie Rayner champagne socialism is alive well and kicking in the in the Labour Party.”
Mr Raab also insisted he wasn’t winking at Mr Rayner - saying: “I was actually winking at [Shadow Scottish Secretary] Ian Murray who was braying at me from a sedentary position.”
But Ms Rayner said the majority of the public weren’t buying Mr Raab’s attacks.
She said: “What always gives me great pride and gives me the confidence to carry on is I think the vast majority of the public respond to this very badly. So there is hope out there.”
Ms Rayner was speaking at an event on better representation in politics hosted by the IPPR think tank.
The MP, who left school pregnant at 16, said she knows “that feeling, that pit, that dread in your stomach” when a bill arrives that can’t be paid.
She spoke of poor Brits who can’t get credit when their fridge freezer breaks down, saying: “You don’t have a couple of quid in the bank that you can just get a fridge freezer with, just like that.
“It’s that feeling, that pit, that dread in your stomach about ‘how am I going to cope, how am I going to survive’ - the panic sets in.
“And I do think sometimes people in positions of influence like politicians never have that feeling.
“I have the luxury now, if my fridge or my washer breaks down, I can go and buy one. I can get zero interest credit flying out of my ears.
“But my friends - I still now to this day am a guarantor for many of my family for their rents, so that they can get on.
“And I just helped my son out who had bailiffs at the door this weekend.
“Because there are far too many people who are struggling today and there’s far too many politicians and influencers in power who just do not have an understanding of what it’s like.”
