Kemi Badenoch drew shouts of "shame" from Labour MPs at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday after joking that Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband thought "cosying up to Russell Brand would make him prime minister". The remark, aimed at Mr Miliband over his past opposition to drilling at the Rosebank oil field, came just a day after Mrs Badenoch had refused to score political points over Brand's crimes, saying it would be disrespectful to his victims.

The Conservative leader was questioning Prime Minister Andy Burnham about the government's energy policy when she turned to Mr Miliband, who was not in the chamber because he was attending the Cop31 climate talks in Antalya, Turkey. She told MPs: "[Miliband] called Rosebank 'climate vandalism' - but then, he also thought cosying up to Russell Brand would make him prime minister, so I don't think we need to trust his judgement."

Labour MPs immediately began shouting "shame" across the Commons chamber. Mrs Badenoch responded: "They're saying 'shame'… they're right, the foreign secretary should be ashamed." The exchange became the most striking moment of a session that had otherwise been dominated by the government's long-promised ten-year plan and the future of North Sea oil and gas.

A day after refusing to raise Brand

The jibe was all the more notable because Mrs Badenoch had taken the opposite position only the day before. Asked at a press conference on Tuesday whether she would attack Labour over Mr Miliband's past association with Brand, she declined, saying it was disrespectful to Brand's victims and wrong to attack politicians of any party for associations they had formed before a person's crimes were in the public domain.

By Wednesday, that restraint had gone. The Guardian's sketch of the session noted that her own Conservative MPs sat largely stony-faced as she worked through a series of jokes, and that the person laughing hardest at her material appeared to be Mrs Badenoch herself. The sketch described the session as a demonstration of how little the leader of the opposition had to say, with almost no serious questions asked of the prime minister.

Brand was sentenced on Monday to ten years and six months in prison after being convicted at Southwark Crown Court of rape and three counts of sexual assault, offences committed between 2004 and 2009. His conviction has raised awkward questions for Labour, because Mr Miliband, then the party's leader, filmed a 15-minute interview with Brand at his east London home just days before the 2015 general election, in an attempt to encourage young people to vote.

Labour's regrets and the prime minister's response

Education Secretary Lucy Powell, who was Mr Miliband's chief of staff when the video was arranged, told Sky News on Tuesday that she "really regrets" it. Mr Miliband himself has said that he would not have done the interview had he known then what he knows now. A spokesperson for the foreign secretary said: "These are horrific crimes that Russell Brand has been found guilty of, and Ed's profound sympathy is with the victims."

After Prime Minister's Questions, the prime minister's spokesman was asked about the exchange. He said Mr Burnham had been asked about the issue in a BBC interview on Friday, and that it was "not always the case that people know everything about people in public life", but that what mattered was that wrongdoing was exposed. The spokesman added that the prime minister praised "the bravery of the victims" and "the journalists that have exposed this".

Mrs Badenoch ended her questions by listing a series of complaints against Labour and asking whether its MPs really thought it had been worth replacing Sir Keir Starmer with Mr Burnham. The question fell flat, the Guardian sketch observed, because even her own backbenchers could see that Labour MPs were delighted with their new leader. Mr Burnham, for his part, confirmed during the session that his ten-year plan for Britain would be presented to MPs before the Christmas recess.