Labour has denied Jeremy Corbyn called Theresa May a “stupid woman” during prime minister’s questions on Wednesday.
Tory MPs reacted with fury on Wednesday after video footage from the Commons suggested Corbyn made the comment as he clashed with May over Brexit.
But Labour claimed he had in fact said “stupid people” and insisted there was not “any grounds for an apology”.
The House of Commons descended into the “last days of Ancient Rome” as Conservatives complained about Corbyn as well as how Speaker John Bercow responded to the allegations.
Cries of “shame” and “disgraceful” were heard from the Tory benches as Corbyn left the chamber after PMQs.
Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis demanded Corbyn “apologise or clarify exactly what he was saying”.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock branded Corbyn a “reactionary misogynist”.
A spokesman for Corbyn said: “He did not call her a stupid woman. As I understand it he said ‘stupid people’.
“It was referring to the exchanges about pantomimes and so on. He definitely didn’t say ‘stupid woman’. I’ve been in touch with him.”
Asked if Corbyn was addressing his remarks to the PM, the spokesman suggested it was a wider response to the Conservatives as a whole. “That was clearly in response to what was going on in the chamber. There clearly is stupidity around this issue I don’t think anyone would deny that.
“Lip-reading in such circumstances is always open to doubt. He’s adamant that he did not say that and I have complete confidence in him.
“He has no time for any misogynistic abuse of any kind and people who are trying to make out he said something he didn’t it’s for them to account for themselves.”
Asked why Corbyn had left the Commons so quickly, his spokesman said: “As I understood it he was leaving the chamber because of the point that was being made.
“We are dealing with the most serious issue facing the country, this is a national crisis, the attempt to belittle what is being discussed and to turn it into a pantomime is obviously completely unacceptable.”
A Downing Street spokesman, asked about the row, said: “I thought the prime minister responded in general to allegations about use of inappropriate language towards women in an entirely befitting and dignified manner.”
May had condemned misogyny when asked about it during PMQs.
Bercow told MPs he could not rule on whether Corbyn should apologise as he did not see what happened.
“I cannot be expected to pronounce upon that which I did not see and which was not witnessed by my advisers, and which I did not hear and which was not witnessed by my advisers,” he said.
But he said if an MP failed to follow the conventions of the Commons then they should say sorry.
This then led Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom to directly confront Bercow over a past clash between the pair.
“If individuals who are found to have made unwelcome remarks should apologise, why it is that when an opposition member found that you had called me a ‘stupid woman’, you did not apologise in this chamber?” she asked.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said it was “important that the Speaker has the confidence of the House”.
The row escalated even more when Tory backbencher Anna Soubry angrily accused Bercow of letting Corbyn off the hook.
“With great respect to the chair I have to say this, if it was one of my male colleagues on this side of the House that had used that expression against a woman on the frontbench on the Opposition you sir would take action immediately,” she said.
Soubry said women MPs were “fed up over decades of being abused by men”.
SNP MP Joanna Cherry said today’s scenes at PMQs was the Commons “at its obnoxious worst”.
“I can say (from) bitter experience that sexism is present in all political parties but this is like the last days of Ancient Rome,” she tweeted.
Labour MP Margaret Beckett accused Tory MPs of staging an “orchestrated riot” by questioning Bercow.
In a further twist, West Wing actor Rob Lowe also intervened in the argument.