Media watchdog rejects Rayner complaints

The press regulator has rejected 6,000 complaints over the Angela Rayner Basic Instinct story, branded sexist by many in Westminster, because the politician herself did not personally protest to it about the report.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Labour’s deputy leader crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract Boris Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions, a claim she dismissed as “desperate, perverted smears”. It provoked 6,000 complaints of discrimination to the Independent Press Standards Organisation but it can only act on complaints by those who are subject to alleged discrimination.