‘WE MUST DECLINE’: MoS letter to Speaker

Dear Sir Lindsay,

I and The Mail on Sunday have the greatest possible respect both for your Office and for Parliament. Along with a free Press they are the foundation stones of British democracy. For that reason – and on the understanding that the intention was to draw a line under matters – yesterday I and The Mail on Sunday’s Political Editor Glen Owen accepted your invitation to meet to discuss last Sunday’s story about Angela Rayner.

However, since then two things have happened.

Firstly, and regrettably, in your statement in the House yesterday you said: ‘I share the views expressed by a wide range of members, including I believe the Prime Minister, that yesterday’s article was reporting unsubstantiated claims – and misogynistic and offensive.’ This indicated that you had passed judgment on our article without being in possession of the facts surrounding how it came to be reported.

Secondly, following investigations by the Conservative Party, three other MPs who were part of the group on the House of Commons terrace, one of them a woman, have come forward to corroborate the account of Angela Rayner’s remarks given to us by the MP who was the source of last Sunday’s story.

The Mail on Sunday deplores sexism and misogyny in all its forms. However, journalists must be free to report what they are told by MPs about conversations which take place in the House of Commons, however unpalatable some may find them.

Britain rightly prides itself on its free Press. That freedom will not last if journalists have to take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be, on what they can report and not report. I am afraid I and Glen Owen must now decline your invitation.

David Dillon, Editor, The Mail on Sunday