Stone the crows! Tories accuse Rayner of Basic Instinct ploy to distract Boris
ALL is fair in love, war and Commons duels with Boris Johnson, if the claims of Tory MPs are to be believed.
Conservatives have claimed that Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner likes to put Mr Johnson ‘off his stride’ in the chamber by crossing and uncrossing her legs when they clash at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The exchanges between Ms Rayner and Mr Johnson – which take place when leader Sir Keir Starmer is absent – have become a highlight of the Commons calendar, pitching the comprehensive school-educated Labour MP against the Old Etonian.
But Tory MPs have mischievously suggested that Ms Rayner likes to distract the PM when he is at the dispatch box by deploying a fully-clothed Parliamentary equivalent of Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 film Basic Instinct.
It is suggested that Ms Rayner also employs the tactic when sitting next to Sir Keir when he faces Mr Johnson at PMQs.
One MP said: ‘She knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks. She has admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the [Commons] terrace.’
Last night, a spokesman for Ms Rayner described the allegation as ‘categorically untrue’. Ms Rayner, 41, a socialist grandmother who left school at 16 while pregnant and with no qualifications before becoming a care worker, has frequently landed blows on the Prime Minister during sparky – some say flirty – exchanges.
During one encounter in January, Mr Johnson raised claims that she was agitating to succeed Sir Keir by saying: ‘We all know what job she wants.’
Ms Rayner hit back: ‘I’ve heard on the grapevine there might be a vacancy for Prime Minister soon, so maybe I should show aspiration.’
In Basic Instinct, Ms Stone played Catherine Tramell, an enigmatic writer involved in a relationship with a police detective played by Michael Douglas. Ms Stone claimed the scene in which she uncrossed her legs was filmed without her knowledge.
Last week, Ms Rayner accused Mr Johnson of having ‘mocked [the] sacrifice’ of Britons during the coronavirus pandemic. She said: ‘As a care worker, I know the sacrifices they made in the pandemic on the frontline, putting themselves at risk to care for others. It is the least that they deserve for the Prime Minister to be held to account for his own conduct.
‘While the Prime Minister was partying, they were unable to be with their loved ones in their dying moments, or unable to attend miserable funerals with only a handful of people because they were following his rules.’
A Labour source said: ‘Just when you think the Conservative party can’t get any lower they outdo themselves. The Conservatives clearly have a problem with women in public life.’
A spokesman for Ms Rayner said last night: ‘I’m telling you categorically it’s untrue.’
‘They have a problem with women in public’