Allegations that Conservative lawmakers have accused Angela Raynor of deliberately distracting Boris Johnson by crossing and crossing her legs in municipalities are “ridiculous,” the party chairman said.
Anger is growing because of an unusual newspaper story, according to which the Tories likened the tactics of the deputy leader of Labor to a fully clothed equivalent on the scandalous scene of Sharon Stone in the movie Basic Instinct.
This was widely condemned as outright sexism – while having a bad effect on Mr Johnson himself if he could not concentrate when he encountered a woman’s legs.
But Oliver Dowden dismissed the allegations in The Mail on Sunday, while cautiously denying that some conservatives may have made the allegation.
“This is a completely ridiculous story that I do not recognize in any way,” party chairman Sophie Ridge told Sky News in Sunday’s program.
But Labor’s shadow spokesman, Tulip Sidick, told Mr Dowden that he had not been able to go further in his critique of history.
“I think he should have been stronger in condemning this,” she told the same program.
And Ms Raynor said she had no doubt that Mr Johnson himself was behind what she called “desperate, perverse slander” – which also targeted her working-class background.
“Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day – and I’m no different,” she added.
“I am accused of a ‘trick’ to ‘distract’ the helpless prime minister – as a woman, I have legs and wear clothes. I conspire to “remove” it. I will not repeat the rest – but you understand the picture. “
She added: “Boris Johnson’s cheerleaders have resorted to the spread of desperate, perverse slander in their doomed attempts to save his skin. They know exactly what they are doing. The lies they tell.
“The biography is given in a pot – my overall education, my experience as a care worker, my family, my class, my background. The implication is clear.
“But it is the prime minister who drags the Conservative Party down the drain – and the anonymous Tory MPs who carry out his orders are complicit.”
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