The editor of Mail on Sunday’s has rejected a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Commons after a story accusing Angela Raynor of “distracting” Boris Johnson with her legs.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle summoned the newspaper’s editor, David Dylan, after publishing the story, which was widely condemned as a sexist by lawmakers from all political parties and sparked a debate on misogyny in Westminster.
But the Daily Mail seems to have doubled the article, citing unnamed Tory leaders who say the deputy Labor leader used his legs to “distract” the prime minister in the municipalities and accused her of “fully clothed parliamentary equivalent on the scandalous scene of Sharon Stone in the 1992 film Basic Instinct.
The Mail claims that Dylan and Mail on Sunday political editor Glenn Owen, whose text went down in history, turned down the president’s invitation to a meeting on Wednesday “in the name of the free press”.
In response to Hoyle, Dylan said that journalists “should not accept instructions in the House of Commons, no matter how August they are,” adding that the newspaper “regrets sexism and misogyny in all its forms.”
The article, which Raynor said “begged” the Mail on Sunday not to be released, sparked outrage from lawmakers across the political spectrum after its publication over the weekend.
Conservative MP Caroline Knox, chair of the Committee on Women and Equality, wrote to Hoyle, asking him to consider canceling the author’s Commons pass.
However, Hoyle – who met with Raynor on Monday – suggested it would not be right to remove his pass.
Speaking before the meeting was rejected, he said: “I am a strong believer and defender of freedom of the press, so when an MP asked me to remove a sketch author’s pass last week for something he wrote, I said ‘no ‘.
“I firmly believe in the obligation of reporters to cover parliament, but I would also ask – nothing more – that the feelings of all MPs and their families be taken into account and the impact on their safety when writing articles.
“I would just ask that we all be a little kinder.”
Raynor told ITV’s Lorraine on Tuesday that she told the Mail on Sunday: “This is disgusting. This is completely untrue. Please don’t tell such a story. “
Conservative whips say they will try to get to the bottom, which the Tory MP made comments about Raynor.
In Basic Instinct, Stone plays a brutal murderous psychopath who, in his best-remembered scene, briefly flashes his vulva while being questioned by a police detective played by Michael Douglas.
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