Boris Johnson has vehemently insisted that “misogynistic” claims recently made about UK Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner were “not in his name”, according to The Telegraph.
He was reportedly prompted to write a private letter to Rayner expressing his sympathy after severe backlash on both sides of the Commons on Sunday over claims made by a Tory MP.
The unnamed source was cited by the Daily Mail as suggesting that during her verbal sparring in the House of Commons with Boris Johnson, Angela Rayner liked to put the Tory Prime Minister “off his stride” by employing a mischievous ploy hailing back to Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 thriller “Basic Instinct”.
Thus, it was claimed that during heated exchanges with Johnson at the Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) Rayner crosses and uncrosses her legs while seated on the Labour front bench.
According to the cited Tory source, Rayner “knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks” and claimed she had “admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the [Commons] terrace”.
An affronted Rayner described them in a Sunday statement as “desperate” and “perverted”, and suggested that claims such as that would only discourage women from seeking a career in Westminster.
“Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day - and I’m no different. I stand accused of a ‘ploy’ to ‘distract’ the helpless PM - by being a woman, having legs and wearing clothes. Boris Johnson’s cheerleaders have resorted to spreading desperate, perverted smears in their doomed attempts to save his skin. They know exactly what they are doing. The lies they are telling”, stated Rayner.
Boris Johnson publicly condemned the statements targeting Rayner on Twitter on 24 April, stating that while he disagreed with the Labour politician “on almost every political issue”, he respected her and deplored “the misogyny directed at her anonymously”.
His Twitter post was retweeted by Simon Clarke, Treasury minister, and Nadine Dorries, culture secretary. Sajid Javid, health secretary, added that “No woman in politics should have to put up with this”.
Northern Ireland minister, Conor Burns, tweeted that the “poisonous” story was “typical of the baseless stories planted by drunk nonentities puffing up their egos on the terrace”.
According to The Telegraph, citing Tory sources, MPs have been warned against repeating such claims.
“All MPs should be reminded by this sorry saga of the standards expected of them”, a source was quoted as saying.