Speaker to call in MOS editor over Rayner row
Sir Lindsay Hoyle attacks ‘unsubstantiated’ remarks on Labour deputy leader attributed to Tory MP
The Speaker of the House of Commons has demanded a meeting with the editor of the Mail on Sunday over an article containing “misogynistic, offensive and demeaning” claims about Angela Rayner. Sir Lindsay Hoyle criticised the “unsubstantiated” remarks made about Labour’s deputy leader. An MP reportedly said Ms Rayner tried to put Boris Johnson “off his stride” by crossing and uncrossing her legs on the front bench, likening the scene to the film Basic Instinct.
THE Speaker of the House of Commons has demanded a meeting with the editor of the Mail on Sunday in the wake of an article containing “misogynistic, offensive and demeaning” claims about Angela Rayner.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle criticised the “unsubstantiated” remarks that were made by an anonymous Tory MP about Labour’s deputy leader.
The MP reportedly said that Ms Rayner attempted to put Boris Johnson “off his stride” by crossing and uncrossing her legs on the Labour front bench during Prime Minister’s Questions.
The report, which likened the claims to a scene from the 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct, also contained remarks that Ms Rayner “knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks” and claim she had “admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the [Commons] terrace”.
Sir Lindsay said that while he takes media freedom “very seriously”, he was understanding of concerns about the article by the Mail on Sunday.
He told the Commons: “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.”
He said the remarks were “demeaning” and “offensive” to women in Parliament and “can only deter women who might be considering standing for election to the detriment of us all”.
“That is why I have arranged a meeting with the chair of the press lobby and the editor of the Mail on Sunday to discuss the issue affecting our parliamentary community,” he said. MPS on both sides of the Commons condemned the MP’S remarks, and Mr Johnson wrote Ms Rayner a private letter expressing his sympathy and assuring her the comments were “not in his name”.
The Prime Minister said the comments were “intolerable”, adding that he would unleash “the terrors of the Earth” on the source behind the comments if they were ever identified. A source close to the Whips Office said: “Questions are being asked around the palace and if the anonymous source is identified action will be taken.”
Downing Street said that MPS should “absolutely” challenge colleagues who made sexist comments in tea rooms and bars around Westminster.
Yesterday, Harriet Harman, a veteran Labour MP, called for a change to the Commons rules: to make misogynistic, homophobic and racist briefings a breach of the MPS’ code of conduct. She said it was not “just one bad apple”, adding that there was “definitely an undercurrent” of sexism in Westminster.
“If a woman is dressed up, she is accused of titivation and if she isn’t she is accused of being frumpy,” she said.
Her comments were echoed by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said the culture in Parliament was “sexist” . Caroline Nokes, the Tory chairman of the women and equalities select committee, said: “It’s why I’ve come here in trousers, and that’s why you often find me in media appearances wearing trousers – so that nobody gets that photo.”
♦rishi Sunak has the lowest approval rating of any Cabinet minister with Tory members, according to a Conservative Home poll that comes amid a row about his wife’s past tax status.
The House of Commons will today hold a general debate on Ukraine, the first for several weeks. It is right that the military, diplomatic and political implications are regularly discussed in Parliament. This is the biggest geopolitical crisis in Europe since 1945 and the conflict is turning into a proxy stand-off between Nato and Russia. What does this mean for our foreign policy and defence budget; should countries like Finland be brought into Nato; do we need to revisit the Strategic Review entitled Global Britain in a Competitive Age published last year? We will be living with the ramifications of the past two months for the next two decades.
Such a debate will also elevate the gaze of our MPS to weightier matters than “partygate” and the latest subject to foment discord, the furore over Angela Rayner’s legs. Great offence has been taken by the Labour deputy leader and other MPS about a story in the Mail on Sunday suggesting she was distracting Boris Johnson during Prime Minister’s Question Time. It is extraordinary that this has been elevated into a cause celebre when so much else is going on. The anger of parliamentarians is also being directed at the messenger rather than the tawdry source of the claim. MPS are even demanding that the Commons pass of the story’s author should be removed and Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, has requested a meeting with the newspaper’s editor to “demand an explanation”.
Last week, a Labour MP called for the pass of the sketch writer of The Times to be withdrawn because of the “unacceptable” content of an article. Are newspapers now expected to tailor their reportage to the whims of what MPS consider appropriate?