Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu hit back at a caller on the Jeremy Vine Show during a row over the Prime Minister. She had insisted “it was fair to call Boris Johnson a liar” as MPs voted to investigate Mr Johnson over lockdown parties held in No 10. However, Richard, from Buckinghamshire, called into the programme to dismiss the accusations as “petty names”.
He said it was simply not professional to call someone a liar and called the treatment of Boris Johnson “unfair”.
Dr Shola reacted furiously: “Richard, you said it was not professional for calling someone a liar when they lie.
“I don’t know what the heck you are talking about.
“Because in the same sentence you talk about them being highly educated.”
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The Jeremy Vine pundit continued: “Your high education should educate you that when you do lie you should be called a liar.
“It has jack all to do with that. It’s about integrity, it’s about conduct.
“It’s about truth, it’s about honesty, and what you should expect from the highest office in the land.
“Right now, this Prime Minister – who you say is being treated unfairly – brought this upon himself by lying and distracting the public.”
Richard responded: “Slander and libellous then gets put into the House of Commons once you start calling people petty names like liars.
Dr Shola responded: “And that upsets you?”
Richard added: “Use the correct terminology!”
This comes as the Speaker of the House of Commons broke with a recent convention to allow MPs to call Boris Johnson a “liar” during a parliamentary debate on Thursday.
MPs are banned from using unparliamentary language in the chamber, which normally includes referring to other MPs as liars.
But on Thursday, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle appeared to temporarily lift the ban, allowing SNP MP Ian Blackford to repeatedly call Mr Johnson a liar.
This took place during a discussion on whether the Prime Minister should face a standards probe for his conduct during the Partygate scandal.
In recent months, Speaker Hoyle had punished MPs for referring to the PM as a liar – including Mr Blackford in January and Labour MP Dawn Butler last summer.
A survey by pollster JLPartners released at the weekend found that the Prime Minister is widely regarded as a “liar” generally by the public.
It was the term most cited when a representative sample of voters were asked to describe Mr Johnson.