Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has said she was “crestfallen” that a Tory MP made sexist claims about her to a newspaper, which decided to run a widely-criticised article about them. She told ITV’s Lorraine: “I’ve been overwhelmed because, when I heard the story was coming out and we rebutted it instantly, and was like ‘This is disgusting, it’s completely untrue. Please don’t run a story like that.’
“I felt really sad … I was trying to prepare my children for seeing things online that they don’t want to see their mum portrayed that way. I felt really down about that, but I was overwhelmed by people’s response because I just thought ‘Is that what people expect and think about what I do?’
“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.”
She also said the article was “steeped in classism”, insinuating she must be “thick” because she went to a comprehensive school and she is “promiscuous” because she had a child when she was young. Ms Rayner has suggested a wider “cultural shift” is needed following the row about her attire in the Commons.
“There’s still so much more for us to do,” she told Lorraine. “We have got to teach our sons to be respectful of women and we’ve got to teach our women to be confident about themselves as well.”
Ms Rayner wore a trouser suit for her appearance on the ITV show because she did not want to be “judged for what I wear”. “I wanted to be defiant as well, because I don’t think that women should be told how to dress – but I didn’t want to distract from the fact that, actually, it’s not about my legs.
“I didn’t want people at home thinking ‘Let’s have a look to see what her legs are like and how short her skirt is or not’. Because I feel like I’m being judged for what I wear, rather than what I’m saying to you and how I come across.”
The article quoting anonymous Conservative MP sources claimed Angela Rayner used a tactic of crossing and uncrossing her legs in the House of Commons to distract Boris Johnson - referencing the 90s film Basic Instinct.
