PAPER CHIEFS DEFIANT IN SEXISM ROW
ANGELA Rayner yesterday blasted newspaper bosses who refused to back down over a sexist article about her legs.
Labour’s deputy leader accused critics of saying “she loves it really” after Mail on Sunday editor David Dillon refused a meeting with Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.
The paper ran a story on Sunday which claimed Rayner crossed and uncrossed her legs like Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct to distract Boris Johnson at PMQs. Its sister newspaper the Daily Mail yesterday reported that Rayner joked on a podcast about an online parody of her as Stone in the film.
She said in January “I don’t need to do that” to distract the PM and she was “mortified” by the comparison, adding there was a “tiny bit of misogyny” in it.
Rayner said yesterday: “I said in January the sexist film parody about me was misogynistic and it still is now. As
women we sometimes try to brush aside the sexism we face, but that doesn’t make it OK.
“The Mail implies today that I somehow enjoy being subjected to sexist slurs.
“I don’t. ‘She loves it really’ is an excuse so many women are familiar with.
“But it can’t be women’s responsibility to call it out every time.
“I don’t need anyone to explain sexism to me – I experience it every day.”
Hoyle confirmed yesterday that he will meet Tory MP Caroline Nokes, equality committee chair, who suggested the reporter who wrote the story, Glen Owen, should lose his lobby pass.