JOHNSON CONDEMNS ‘MISOGYNISTIC TRIPE’
BORIS Johnson 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 on Sunday, were “appalling”.
Mr Johnson said if the source of 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’ 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.”
In a King Lear reference, he threatened to unleash “the terrors of the earth” on the source behind the comments if they were ever identified.
“If we ever find who is responsible for it, I don’t know what we will do, but they will be the terrors of the earth. It’s totally intolerable, that kind of thing.”
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”.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), the industry watchdog, has received 5,500 complaints about the report. Associated Newspapers, which publishes The Mail on Sunday, has declined to comment.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said that the treatment of Ms Rayner was typical of what women had to put up with at Westminster.
“I’m afraid that this story just shines a spotlight on the sort of rubbish that female MPs and other women in Parliament have to put up with on a day-to-day basis,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“She doesn’t need to use her sex to win an argument or put the Prime Minister off, or whatever was suggested in that article.
“She does it by the strength of her argument, and to suggest otherwise, it’s just disgusting and it doesn’t do justice to the brilliant women we have in Parliament from all sides.”