Mental health minister slams Carol Vorderman over twitter comment

Countdown star Carol Vorderman has been accused of “naming and shaming” by mental health minister Maria Caulfield after the pair had a public spat. Ms Caulfield spoke out about the feud, which began when the maths whizz attacked her for being unable to attend a Commons committee meeting.

The minister said: “I was lambasted because I couldn’t do one date for that select committee – there was no flexible working there. There was definitely presenteeism there.

“We want to make the workplace more adaptable, more flexible, more female-friendly.

“And I just think as women, we should be working together to do that, rather than turning on each other if we are not quite in agreement with those responses.”

Carol, 62, spoke at a committee hearing looking into the workplace experiences of women going through the menopause.

Ms Caulfield, who doubles as the Government’s equalities minister, was also invited but had arranged to meet a group of women campaigning against painful hysteroscopies – a procedure where a narrow telescope and camera are put into the womb so it can be examined.

As a result, Carol posted on Twitter that the minister could not “be bothered to turn up”. She claimed to have seen Ms Caulfield sipping tea in a House of Commons cafe.

In an interview with House Magazine, Ms Caulfield said: “If Carol did see me in Portcullis House, which I’m not quite sure she did, because I don’t recall having a cup of tea that day, but if she did, why didn’t she just come up to me and say, ‘Really sorry you couldn’t make that meeting.

“Why couldn’t you make it? Let’s have a chat about menopause in the workplace’.

“But instead, it’s all about going on Twitter, naming and shaming and getting a Twitter storm going on people.”

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