The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Outrage at Rayner slurs
Boris Johnson has condemned the “misogynistic tripe” aimed at Labour’s Angela Rayner after she was accused of trying to distract him in the Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs.
The prime minister said the “sexist” claims, made by anonymous Tory MPs and reported in the Mail of Sunday, were “appalling”.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle joined in the condemnation and said he would meet the newspaper’s editor to discuss the story.
Mr Johnson said if the sources for the newspaper’s story was identified they would face “the terrors of the earth”.
There was outrage across the political spectrum after The Mail on Sunday reported the claims, including a quote from one
MP that deputy Labour leader Ms Rayner “knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks”.
Asked if the row was a sign of a wider cultural problem, Mr Johnson told reporters: “It’s hard to say on the basis of that particular story.
“But I have to say I thought it was the most appalling load of sexist, misogynist tripe.
“I immediately got in touch with Angela and we had a very friendly exchange.”
Quoting Shakespeare’s King Lear he threatened to unleash “the terrors of the earth” on the source behind the comments if they were ever identified.
In the Commons, the speaker expressed his sympathy to Ms Rayner for being the subject of comments which were “demeaning, offensive to women in Parliament” and could “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.
It is understood the speaker will meet both Mail on Sunday editor David Dillon and the newspaper’s political editor Glen Owen, along with Press Gallery chairman Andrew Woodcock.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), the industry watchdog, has received 5,500 complaints about the report.