Mail on Sunday rejects Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s invite over Angela Rayner storyon April 27, 2022 at 2:49 am

The editor of the Mail on Sunday has declined an invitation to meet with the Speaker of the House of Commons over a controversial article about Labour’s deputy leader Angela Raynor.

David Dillon rejected Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s invite to discuss the piece, which claimed Tory MPs think Ms Rayner crosses and uncrosses her legs to distract Boris Johnson in Parliament.

Mr Johnson said it was “sexist tripe”.

Mr Dillon said it should be up to journalists to decide what they report.

The article sparked criticism from both sides of the Commons after its publication at the weekend.

The story said: “Tory MPs have mischievously suggested that Ms Rayner likes to distract the PM when he is in the despatch box by deploying a fully clothed parliamentary equivalent of Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 film Basic Instinct.”

Mr Johnson said he respected Ms Rayner as a parliamentarian and “deplored the misogyny” in the piece, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called it a “disgraceful new low” for the Conservative Party.

Ms Rayner said she was “crestfallen” over the story and that women in politics “face sexism and misogyny every day”.

She accused the article of being “steeped in classism”, suggesting she was “thick” as she had attended a comprehensive school, and insinuated she was “promiscuous” for having a child aged 16.

Speaking in the House on Monday, Sir Lindsay called the story “misogynistic and offensive” and said he was arranging a meeting with Mr Dillon and the Mail on Sunday’s political editor, Glen Owen, whose name appeared next to the story.

In a letter on Tuesday, Mr Dillon said he had initially intended to attend the meeting “to draw a line under matters”, but that Sir Lindsay’s comments in the Commons indicated that he had already “passed judgment on our article”.

“The Mail on Sunday deplores sexism and misogyny in all its forms,” Mr Dillon wrote.

“However, journalists must be free to report what they are told by MPs about conversations which take place in the House of Commons, however unpalatable some may find them.”

He added that the freedom of the press would “not last if journalists have to take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be, on what they can report and not report”.

Sir Lindsay earlier said he was a “staunch believer and protector of press freedom” and that he “firmly [believed] in the duty of reporters to cover Parliament”.

He said he had wanted to use the meeting to “make a plea – nothing more – for the feelings of all MPs and their families to be considered, and the impact on their safety, when articles are written”.

The UK press regulator Ipso has said it is exploring possible breaches of its code of practice after receiving 5,500 complaints about the article.