Carol Vorderman has called out Conservative peer Shaun Bailey after comments he made about her during an appearance on GB News last month.
Bailey – a former London mayoral candidate, who was appointed to the House Of Lords last year – recently took part in a debate on the divisive news channel, during which he criticised the former Countdown presenter’s credibility as a political commentator.
“Look, on one hand she’s got all that stuff on [X, formerly known as Twitter], you know, she’s a serious political commentator, and then if you look at her Instagram it’s all pictures of her bums and her boobs,” he claimed.
“So what is it, here? She can’t be both.”
Carol then hit back on her X page on Wednesday, accusing Bailey of being “sexist” and referring to him as the “jingle and mingle partygate apologist”, referring to a picture of him that surfaced at a gathering at Conservative Party headquarters that was taken while lockdown measures were in place.
“So, Shaun thinks that women who wear lycra in the gym shouldn’t be allowed a political opinion... or I assume a vote!” she continued.
“Failed Mayoral candidate #SexistShaun was made a Lord last year. Yet another Tory honour for dishonour.”
In a statement issued to HuffPost UK, Bailey said: “In a recent panel discussion, I used a clumsy form of words to describe Carol Vorderman’s Instagram posts.
“The point I was trying to make is Carol lives in a world of glitz and celebrity, as her Instagram portrays, but simultaneously demonises and bullies those who hold different political views to her own. I strongly support free speech. I don’t support bullying.”
HuffPost UK has also contacted GB News for comment.
Since uploading her post, Carol has been backed by the journalist Ava Evans, who herself was the subject of derogatory remarks by the actor Laurence Fox during Dan Wootton’s GB News show last year.
“Really exhausting to see this said about @CarolVorders,” Evans wrote. “It’s so easy to use your interview time to go for someone’s arguments, yet he can’t help himself but go for her body.”
While best known for her work as a TV personality on the likes of Countdown, Loose Women and This Morning, Carol has more recently made headlines for her numerous political takedowns on social media.
Back in November, Carol told her followers that she was stepping down from her show on BBC Wales as she was “not prepared to stop” criticising the UK government “for what it has done to the country I love”, after new social media guidelines were brought in for BBC employees.
“I was brought up to fight for what I believe in, and I will carry on,” she said.
The Maths expert also recently revealed that she was teaming up with the non-profit the Good Law Project, in a bid to expose a “trove” of previously-unseen material relating to the government’s handling of the Covid crisis.