Handout photo issued by UK Parliament of Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions. (UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor)
(Picture: PA Media)It began as a misogynistic allegation that Angela Rayner liked to cross and uncross her legs to distract Boris Johnson and has exploded into full-blown “Pestminster” scandal. There are currently 56 MPs under investigation for sexual misconduct and pressure is mounting on a Tory MP accused of watching porn in the Commons to quit.
Rayner has united MPs across the house in outrage at her treatment. Johnson tweeted that he “deplored the misogyny” directed at Rayner; the Tory chairman of parliament’s women and equalities committee, Caroline Noakes, said the MP source behind the article should be “hanging their heads in shame”. Labour’s Jess Philips, who says an element of sexism and classism in Westminster has often led her to being mistaken for Rayner, calls the allegation “vicious and vitriolic” and tells me that since she started as an MP in 2015 “sexism has actually got worse because of the idea there has to be a culture war angle to literally everything.”
