A Tory MP has been mocked for saying babies get teeth 18 months before they are born.
Public health minister Andrea Leadsom made the bizarre comment as she attacked Labour plans to introduce supervised toothbrushing for young children.
The policy would apply to three-to-five-year-olds and has been praised by dentists as a way of tackling tooth decay.
But in the Commons today, Leadsom said: “In the opposition’s proposal they’re talking about supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds.
“Now I don’t know if they don’t know this, but actually you have teeth from before you were born. So if you don’t get your supervised toothbrushing until you are three, at a minimum you’re teeth about four-and-a-half years old.”
Shadow heath secretary Wes Streeting was among those who ridiculed Leadsom for her comments.
Other users of X (formerly Twitter) were equally unforgiving.
Leadsom later said she “misspoke”.