LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr 2022
BORIS JOHNSON HAS written to Angela Rayner to insist “misogynistic” claims reportedly made about her by an unidentified Tory MP were not in his name.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister sent the deputy Labour leader a letter yesterday in response to a report in the Mail on Sunday which has been condemned by Tory and Labour MPs alike.
Johnson reportedly moved to assure Rayner in the private letter that the comments were “not in his name”, expressing his sympathy over the anonymous attack.
The article claimed that an unnamed Tory MP had told the newspaper Rayner crossed and uncrossed her legs on the Labour front bench during Prime Minister’s Questions in an attempt to ‘distract’ Boris Johnson.
The paper likened the claims to a scene from the 1992 erotic thriller ‘Basic Instinct’ and said she was trying to put the PM “off his stride”.
Yesterday, Rayner called the story “desperate” and “perverted” and quickly received solidarity from across the House of Commons for the “smear”.
Boris Johnson was among those to publicly condemn the claims on Twitter.
“As much as I disagree with Rayner on almost every political issue I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today,” he wrote.
Senior ministers followed suit in condemning the claims. While Treasury minister Simon Clarke retweeted Johnson’s message, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries posted the exact same tweet as the PM.
Technology minister Chris Philp there was “ongoing, active work” to root out such “offensive views” within the Conservative Party.
He said he expected efforts would be made to find out who spoke to The Mail on Sunday political editor Glen Owen but suggested the chances of success were limited.
“I think that if anyone is identified having views like those that were expressed, which are just outrageous and misogynistic, then I would expect serious consequences to follow,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“I expect efforts will be made to identify who is responsible for those views. But journalists fiercely guard their sources and I doubt Glen Owen will be volunteering that information.”
The Independent Press Standards Organisation, the industry watchdog, said it was receiving “a high volume of complaints” about newspaper’s report and was dealing with these “under our normal procedures”.
Associated Newspapers, which publishes The Mail on Sunday, has declined to comment.
Labour leader Keir Starmer called for a change to culture in Westminster, saying that it was sexist and misogynist.
“It is rank sexism, rank misogyny. She was really disgusted that all of her political attributes were put aside for this ridiculous, offensive story,” he told ITV’s This Morning programme.
“She shouldn’t have to put up with it but all women in politics shouldn’t have to put up with it. Almost every woman in politics has had an element of this in some shape or form.
“We have got to change the culture. The culture in Parliament, it is sexist, it is misogynist. We need to change it.”
Starmer added that there would be “zero tolerance” for sexist and misogynist attitudes within his party.
Yesterday evening, the Tory chairman of Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee, Caroline Nokes, revealed she had written to Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, to suggest the journalist who wrote the story be formally censured.
The Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North told LBC the Tory MP sources behind the article should be “hanging their heads in shame”.
Earlier in the day she wrote on Twitter that “too many female MPs (of all parties)” have been on the “receiving end of vile” claims like those aimed at Rayner.
Rayner often sits next to Starmer and opposite the Prime Minister during the weekly Commons clashes.
Starmer said the sexism displayed by those briefing the Sunday paper was a “disgraceful new low from a party mired in scandal and chaos”.
Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day - and I’m no different.
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) April 24, 2022
This morning’s is the latest dose of gutter journalism courtesy of @MoS_Politics
🧵👇🏻1/9
In one of the most-criticised comments in the Mail article, one Tory MP is said to have told the paper: “She (Ms Rayner) 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.”
Andrea Leadsom, the former leader of the Commons, similarly called the comments “totally unacceptable” and expressed sympathy for the deputy Labour leader.
When asked on Sophy Ridge about the coverage, Tory chairman Oliver Dowden said he did not recognise the claims attributed to his party’s MPs.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted: “If an MP or MPs really said this then it’s utterly shameful. No woman in politics should have to put up with this.”
The report came as The Sunday Times reported that three cabinet ministers and two shadow cabinet ministers were facing allegations of sexual misconduct after being referred to the parliamentary watchdog set up in the wake of the #MeToo scandal.
The paper said they were among 56 MPs who have been reported to the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme in relation to around 70 separate complaints.
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