An appearance by two rival politicians devolved into an unedifying slanging match on live television on Wednesday morning.

As Labor Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and Liberal Senator Jane Hume traded accusations of mud-slinging and rudeness, Sunrise host Natalie Barr was at one stage even asked to “silence” of one of the politicians.

The interview with  began with Barr asking O’Neil about old social media posts by Queensland candidate Helen Madell that attacked  the late Pope.

Things then became heated when Barr turned the subject to a new Newspoll result showing a significant swing away from Liberal by female voters over the course of the election.

She asked Hume if “asking public servants to return to the office” contributed to the swing.

“Asking public servants to return back to the office in the same proportions as the private sector was the policy that we had,” Hume replied.

She added: “But can we be honest about this? This has been a concerted effort by the Labor Party to sling mud at Peter Dutton personally. They’ve done it at every level.

“They’ve tried to sling mud on the basis of his appearance, his record as a police officer, his record as a very successful small businessperson. When you spend millions of dollars slinging mud, sometimes that sticks.”

Hume went on to defend the Opposition Leader, saying “he has treated women with more respect, more consideration and more conscious than any leader I’ve worked with”.

In response to the accusations of mud-slinging, O’Neil said Hume’s claims were “just a whole bunch of excuses”.

She said the work-from-home policy showed “a lack of understanding about what goes on in the lives of Australian women”.

At this point, Hume interrupted, and continued to interject multiple times, with O’Neil responding that she was “being so incredibly rude”.

“You’re talking about something that is irrelevant,” Hume said of the ditched return-to-work policy.

“This is a democracy and I’m a politician trying to have my say. I listened to you politely,” O’Neil replied

When Hume bit back with “you’re slinging mud and continuing to do so”, O’Neil turned to the Sunrise host, asking: “Nat, can you silence her microphone, please?”