Carol Vorderman Doubles Down On Shaun Bailey Criticism: 'His Response Is Pathetic'

Carol Vorderman has doubled down on her recent criticism of Conservative peer Shaun Bailey, after remarks he made about her on GB News.

Last month, the former London mayoral candidate was part of a GB News debate, during which he questioned Carol’s credentials as a “serious 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 said of the one-time Countdown host.

“So what is it, here? She can’t be both.”

Responding on X, Carol branded Shaun a “misogynist” and described him as the “jingle and mingle Partygate apologist”, referring to a picture of him at a gathering at Conservative Party headquarters that was taken while lockdown measures were in place.

“Shaun thinks that women who wear lycra in the gym shouldn’t be allowed a political opinion... or I assume a vote!” she claimed

By way of response, Shaun issued a statement to HuffPost UK, which read: “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.”

However, in a statement of her own given to BBC News, Carol insisted: “Shaun Bailey’s response is pathetic. This is not an apology, it’s yet another excuse for appalling behaviour, followed by another attack on me.”

Referring to Bailey’s specific Partygate scandal, she continued: ”[Boris] Johnson put him into the House of Lords. So he is a rule breaker and now a rule maker. In proper politics, using his form of words, he ‘can’t be both’.

“As for his new dog-whistle attack on me – the Tory party has bullied the public through their policies and mistruths for years. Certain elements of right wing media and TV have published offensive material about me since I had the ‘temerity’ to debate politics.”

“What Shaun Bailey and the rest of his ilk don’t like is that those of us without a voice have found a voice,” she added.

“All of us who felt that way speak as one. It is Shaun Bailey and those Conservatives like him who are the bullies. It’s laughable they are so thin-skinned because, quite simply, they can’t argue with a woman about the subject matter.

“To quote their heroine Margaret Thatcher, ‘If they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left’.”

Shaun Bailey’s team had no further comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.

Although she’s best known for her work as a TV personality on shows like Countdown, Loose Women and This Morning, Carol has more recently made headlines for her political commentary – and takedowns of the current Conservative government – on social media.

Last year, Carol told her followers that she would be stepping down from her radio 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 noted.

Carol 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.