Outcry as Brexit talks given legs

BRITAIN’S Daily Mail newspaper faced a backlash yesterday for comparing the legs on show when British Prime Minister Theresa May and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon held talks.

While the two leaders clashed over Brexit, which May is set to trigger today, and Sturgeon’s push for another Scottish independence referendum, the Mail spun it as a battle of the legs and focused on what could be read into their outfits and body language.

“Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!”, the tabloid’s front page said, alongside a picture of the two leaders meeting in Glasgow on Monday.

“It wasn’t quite stilettos at dawn, but there was a distinctly frosty atmosphere,” it read underneath.

And in what the tabloid called a “light-hearted verdict on the big showdown”, columnist Sarah Vine asserted: “What stands out here are the legs – and the vast expanse on show.”

She said “May’s famously long extremities are demurely arranged”, while “Sturgeon’s shorter but undeniably more shapely shanks are altogether more flirty”.

The coverage sparked a swift backlash against Britain’s second-most popular newspaper.

Former women and equalities minister Nicky Morgan called it “appalling sexism”.

Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “It’s 2017. This sexism must be consigned to history. Shame on the Daily Mail.”

Women’s Equality Party co-founder Catherine Mayer said it was “laughable and ridiculous” to present two government figureheads in such a way.

“This isn’t treating women as professionals; this is treating two national leaders as unlikely sex symbols,” she said. – AFP