The deputy leader of the UK Labour party Angela Rayner has hit out at the sexism and classism she says were behind a newspaper publishing "disgusting" claims by Tory MPs that she tries to distract Boris Johnson with her legs.
Ms Rayner said she was "crestfallen" to learn of the claims that she tries to distract the British Prime Minister in the House of Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs, but feels "heartened" by the public's overwhelming rejection of the article.
She said that the Mail on Sunday went ahead with publishing the article based on comments from anonymous Conservatives, despite pleas that they were "completely untrue".
The article included a quote from one MP, saying Ms Rayner "knows she can't compete with Boris's Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks".
Speaking on ITV's Lorraine, Ms Rayner said: "I've been overwhelmed because when I heard the story was coming out and we rebutted it instantly ... like this is disgusting, it's completely untrue, please don't run a story like that."
'I've always felt quite intimidated. Women from my background do, we always think 'they're important, they know more than me' - and then you get in the room and realise, actually, they don't'@AngelaRayner talks to @lorraine about a controversial Mail on Sunday article about her pic.twitter.com/QRDIWMv2gt
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) April 26, 2022
The Labour frontbencher said she was "really down" about the article and had to prepare her children for its claims.
She said that "all I worry about when I'm at the despatch box is doing a good job and being able to do justice to my constituents and the work I'm doing, so I was just really crestfallen that somebody had said that to a paper and a paper was reporting that".
"It wasn't just about me as a woman, saying I was using the fact I'm a woman against the prime minister - which I think is quite condescending to the prime minister and shows you what his MPs think about his behaviour - but it was steeped in classism as well," she added.
She also said the article insinuated she must be "thick" because she went to a comprehensive school and she is "promiscuous" because she had a child when she was 16.
Labour leader Keir Starmer hit out at the "disgusting" treatment of Ms Rayner.
On an election campaign visit to Stevenage he told reporters: "She's a formidable politician, a brilliant politician, and this is just disgusting, rank sexism and rank misogyny."
He said a culture change was needed in politics and "we obviously need to call out anybody involved in this".
