Nicky Morgan was represented by a designer handbag on Have I Got News For You, after deciding to pull out days after it emerged she had fallen out with Downing Street over the cost of the prime minister’s trousers.
The former education secretary had been scheduled to appear on the panel show on Friday, but friends said she had concluded it was best to keep “a low profile” after a “bruising” week in which her own fashion choices had been ridiculed.
Morgan had earned the wrath of Theresa May’s close aide Fiona Hill after criticising the prime minister’s choice of a pair of £995 brown trousers for a newspaper photo shoot. Leaked text messages revealed Hill, who is May’s joint chief of staff and acts as her gatekeeper, referring to the former education secretary as “that woman”.
Morgan was later criticised for being pictured carrying an equally expensive handbag made by the luxury brand Mulberry. After seeing a picture of a handbag on the Have I Got News For You set, she tweeted that she would have been happy to donate her own bag to appear instead.
Morgan had suggested the prime minister’s costly fashion choices might not go down well with ordinary voters “in Loughborough market”, in her constituency.
The row led to her being struck off the list for a meeting on Wednesday of backbenchers who had confronted the prime minister over her Brexit strategy.
The former education secretary had previously used the relative freedom that came with her return to the backbenches to speak out against the government on several policy issues, most notably May’s plan to allow more grammar schools to be created.
She had also been one of a group of remain-supporting Conservative MPs who have sought to persuade the government to reveal more details about its negotiating aims for Brexit and seek to maintain the closest possible economic relationship with the EU.
Separately, official records on government hospitality published by the Cabinet Office on Friday revealed that May has received a travel bag as a gift from the fashion brand Anya Hindmarch. The bag has been used by May on an official visit but is too expensive for her to keep so is retained by the government.
The bizarre row, which was quickly dubbed #trousergate on social media, underlined the intense focus on politicians’ appearance, hobbies and habits.
It emerged on Friday that David Cameron, freed from the glare of publicity, has returned to grouse shooting after a decade’s break while he led the Conservative party.
