Jay Rayner scathingly calls out Michael Gove's voting record after being challenged by the MP

Michael Gove and Jay Rayner have got into quite the Twitter spat.

It started when the food critic called new government announcements "desperate" and got worse from there.

He wrote: "Listening to the new Tory Govt policy announcements, each more desperate than the last, I think it's fair to say we have reached the 'Cones Hotline' stage of this administration."

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Usually Tory MPs let criticism lie, especially as Rayner hadn't targeted Gove, but he was clearly rattled, as he replied:

"What is it about fixing unsafe buildings, giving tenants in social housing more rights, ending no fault evictions, empowering metro mayors, tackling rogue landlords, extending childcare and new schools for children with special educational needs which is 'desperate'?"

So Rayner responded: "You've had 13 years to sort all this. Indeed, in 2016 you specifically voted against a bill that would have required landlords to make rented homes fit for human habitation. Why were dangerous homes of the sort that contributed to the death of Awaab Ishak [a toddler who died in mouldy social housing in 2020] fine by you then?"

Safe to say he got the last laugh.

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