Penny Mordaunt left people stunned as she tried to defend her under-fire cabinet colleague Michelle Donelan.
The science secretary has has faced calls to resign after it emerged taxpayers had to pay £15,000 in damages after she wrongly accused an academic of supporting Hamas.
Commons leader Mordaunt used a bizarre defence today as Donelan came under fire from MPs.
She praised her colleague for refusing to accept the redundancy payment she was entitled to in 2022 when she was education secretary for just two days during the downfall of Boris Johnson.
Mordaunt said: “When [Donelan] was entitled to redundancy payments from being secretary of state, which was £16,000, she did not take that and handed it back to the department because it was the right thing to do.
“I would just remind people of that. I think that speaks volumes about the honourable lady’s character and how much she values the fact that it is taxpayers’ money that we are talking about.”
Her comments drew criticism from X users.