Fury erupted online this weekend after an anonymous Tory MP claimed that Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner had attempted to ‘distract’ Boris Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions by crossing and uncrossing her legs in a ploy likened to an infamous scene acted by Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.
‘She knows she can’t compete with Boris’ Oxford Union debating training,’ the source patronisingly claimed to the Mail On Sunday. ‘But she has other skills which he lacks. She has admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the [Commons] terrace.’
The article provoked 5,500 IPSO complaints and the Mail On Sunday’s editor David Dillon has since been summoned by the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for a meeting about the sexist report after it was slammed in the chamber.
After years of sexual harassment accusations and bias on the basis of gender allegations by female politicians working from inside Westminster, many are now questioning whether politics is finally having its own ‘MeToo moment’.
‘Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day - and I’m no different,’ Rayner wrote on Twitter. ‘I stand accused of a “ploy” to “distract” the helpless PM - by being a woman, having legs and wearing clothes. I am conspiring to “put him off his stride”. The rest I won’t repeat - but you get the picture…[Johnson] and his cheerleaders clearly have a big problem with women in public life. They should be ashamed of themselves.’
'By being a woman, having legs and wearing clothes I am conspiring to “put [Johnson] off his stride”'.
While the Basic Instinct claims have enough outcry attached to them to provide a potential watershed moment, it’s also depressingly relevant to mention that this isn't the first time Angela Rayner’s political competence has been undermined by sexism.
All the times Angela Rayner has been the victim of sexism
When Rayner won her seat as Labour’s MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in 2015 it was a historical first for women in politics: in the 180-year history of her constituency she was the first female politician to hold the position.
A year later, Rayner was promoted to the shadow whips office by Jeremy Corbyn and went on to hold the position of Shadow Pensions Minister and Shadow Secretary of State for Education before being elected as Deputy Leader of the party in 2020 - the third woman to ever hold the position.
But with increased visibility came increased criticism and during Labour’s landmark loss of their Hartlepool seat to the Tories for the first time in 62 years in March 2021, Rayner was accused of dressing ‘frumpy’ by tabloids and criticised by MP Jim McMahon for wearing leopard print trousers and military boots to the town during the by-election. In the weeks that followed, Keir Starmer unsuccessfully attempted to remove Rayner from her role as party chair after the defeat.
Aside from her wardrobe, Rayner’s private life has long been speculated on in Westminster and in May 2021 Starmer’s aide Carolyn Harris resigned after it was alleged she’d made up rumours about Rayner’s personal life: ‘Boris Johnson gets celebrated by the fact that nobody knows how many kids he’s got,’ Rayner responded to the rumour mill’s double standard. ‘I’ve not done anything wrong. I’m living my life like everybody else is. It’s not relevant to what I do. But somehow Boris Johnson, it makes him a lad.’
Rayner told Grazia in December 2020 that she has also been frequently ignored in Westminster thanks to unconscious gender bias: ‘Sometimes, you go into a room and [people] will talk to my special advisers because they’re male,’ she said. ‘I’m like, “Er, I’m here!”. They don’t do it deliberately, it’s just like unconscious bias… on a daily basis women face some level of misogyny or discrimination and I think there has to be a cultural shift.’
Recalling her own experiences of sexism, Angela recalled how a former colleague called her ‘frigid’. ‘I was like, “What? Because I don’t want you to hit on me? No mate, I’m at work and I’m trying to do my job.”’
Yet, even in a professional capacity, Rayner has long been accused of ‘flirting with Boris Johnson’ most recently during Prime Ministers Questions in January while covering for Keir Starmer. Described as ‘grinning’, ‘pearl clad’ and ‘purring’, the projected tension between the politicians was reported first and the contents of Rayner’s speech acknowledged second.
When she straightened her hair later that month, it was suggested Rayner was finally showing ‘confidence’ and ‘personality’ after ‘ditching’ her previously criticised ‘bovver boots’. But with Rayner’s more formal appearance, came the archetype of the vixen and her personal life once again hit the headlines when speculation erupted over her leaving her house with Sam Tarrywhile he carried a toothbrush in the early morning.
Along with some backlash for claiming the next Labour leader should be a woman and a slew of threats in abusive emails that led to the arrest of four men throughout Rayner’s career, we arrive at the Basic Instinct allegations in 2022, which is plenty of sexism to contend with over a short span of seven years... and that’s just what’s been published in the public domain.