Emily Thornberry complained to Commons Speaker John Bercow today after Theresa May called her “Lady Nugee”.
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary is married to High Court Judge Sir Christopher Nugee.
Thornberry’s critics like to poke fun at the Islington South MP by invoking her formal title.
Speaking in the Commons today, the prime minister became irritated at Thornberry’s heckling and deployed the name.
Thornberry later complained to Bercow. “Is it in order for the prime minister to refer to a member of this House not by her own name, but by the name of her husband?” she asked.
“I have never been a Lady and it will be a great deal more than being married to a Knight of the Realm in order to make me one.”
May said she would “of course apologise” to Thornberry, but added quickly: “for the last 36 years I have been refered to by my husbands name.”