An article in a British newspaper reported that Labour leader Angela Rayner crosses and uncrosses her leg to distract Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The woman politician hit out at the ‘sexism’ in politics calling out rival MPs who made the remark
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has slammed an article published in the Mail on Sunday, which said she goads the UK prime minister with a ‘with gesture made famous by Sharon Stone’ in the move Basic Instinct. AFP
Sexism rears its ugly head in politics in the United Kingdom once again. An article in a British newspaper suggested that Labour leader Angela Rayner crosses and uncrosses her legs during the prime minister’s questions to distract Boris Johnson.
The Mail on Sunday reported that unnamed senior Tories had “mischievously” suggested Labour’s deputy leader deploys what it called “a fully clothed parliamentary equivalent of Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 film Basic Instinct“.
“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 [House of Commons] terrace,” the report quoted a Conservative MP as saying.
“It is also suggested she employs the tactic when sitting next to Sir Keir when he faces Mr Johnson at PMQs,” it suggested.
The article also described the Labour MP’s background as “a grandmother who left school at 16 while pregnant and with no qualifications before becoming a care worker”.
Rayner calls out sexism in politics
Outraged by the article, Rayner hit out at the “sexism and misogyny” in politics. She dismissed it as a “perverted smear” that showed women in politics face discrimination regularly.
“I stand accused of a ‘ploy’ to ‘distract’ the helpless PM — by being a woman, having legs and wearing clothes. I am conspiring to ‘put him off his stride'”, she wrote on Twitter, calling the report the “latest dose of gutter journalism”.
“I hope this experience doesn’t put off a single person like me, with a background like mine from aspiring to participate in public life. That would break my heart,” she added in the Twitter thread.
Boris Johnson’s reaction
The British prime minister slammed the comments and wrote on Twitter, “As much as I disagree with Angela Rayner on almost every political issue, I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.”
He also contacted Rayner privately by a text message to reiterate what he said in the tweet.
A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament’s Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Britain’s main opposition Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner listen as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), in the House of Commons in London in January 2022. AFP
A political backlash
The Mail on Sunday report led to a huge backlash with other politicians condemning the newspaper.
Conservative Caroline Nokes said too many women MPs of all parties had been “on receiving end of vile articles”, while former minister Andrea Leadsom tweeted, “Really sorry Angela. Totally unacceptable comments and reporting”, reports BBC.
Nokes told LBC, a UK radio station, that the Mail on Sunday had a “long track record of reporting misogynistic stories about female MPs”. She said she had contacted the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, to ask whether the story’s author, the Mail on Sunday political editor, Glen Owen, should have his parliamentary lobby pass revoked – and suggested her committee could examine sexism in political reporting, according to a Guardian report.
Labour leader Sir Keir Stamer said, “The sexism and misogyny peddled by the Tories is a disgraceful new low from a party mired in scandal and chaos.”
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told BBC Breakfast that “instead of just tweeting, the prime minister needs to get his house in order” and ensure that his MPs did not think they had “carte blanche to be saying this sort of thing”.
“This is endemic,” she added, saying that she did not think there was a single woman MP or staff member in the House of Commons who did not have their own stories of misogyny or sexism.
Demand for a probe
Wales’ future generations commissioner had demanded strict action against those comments were published in the newspaper.
“If I was Boris Johnson I would be holding an investigation to find out who made these comments. I would be putting them through a disciplinary process,” Sophie Howe told Radio Wales Breakfast.
She also recalled a similar experience when she was accused by Ruth Price, a former councillor, of crossing her legs “Sharon Stone style” on the television during a BBC interview.
She said the comments about Rayner had “brought back all the same feelings of anger and just utter frustration that I felt when the same thing happened to me”, reports BBC.
The newspaper is mum
According to Guardian, the newspaper’s political editor Glen Owen had declined to comment.
Some media reports suggest that Owen could lose his Lobby pass, special access that political journalists in UK receive.
Independent Press Standards Organisation, an independent regulator of UK’s newspapers and magazines, has reportedly received 5000 complaints about the article.
With inputs from agencies
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