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Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has hit out at a story in the Mail on Sunday this morning which suggested she had been using a “Basic Instinct ploy” to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons.
The paper claimed that Ms Rayner had been accused by her Tory colleagues of putting the prime minister “off his stride” in the chamber by crossing and uncrossing her legs.
Ms Rayner said she believed the prime minister was himself behind the the “desperate, perverted smears” which likened her body language toward the PM to Sharon Stone’s iconic scene in the 1992 erotic thriller.
Prime minister Boris Johnson has since been forced to publicly denounce the blatant “misogyny” directed at the Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne.
Tweeting today, Mr Johnson said: “As much as I disagree with Angela Rayner on almost every political issue I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.”
But the PM’s criticism has become the subject of ridicule on Twitter after beady-eyed users spotted that culture secretary Nadine Dorries shared an identical tweet in condemnation of the accusations against Ms Rayner.
Boris Johnson’s Partygate fine is more serious than a speeding ticket, Tory chair admits
The Conservative party chair has admitted that Boris Johnson’s fine for attending an illegal party is more serious than a speeding ticket – after a cabinet minister suggested the offences were similar.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, was ridiculed by making the comparison, also wrongly claiming that Tony Blair was handed a parking ticket while in No 10.
Asked if it was right to compare breaching Covid rules to a speeding offence, Mr Dowden replied: “It is not a comparison I would make.”
“I take these allegations very seriously – and I don’t underestimate for a moment how angry and hurt people feel about it.”
More to follow from our deputy political editor Rob Merrick:
The Conservative party chair has admitted that Boris Johnson’s fine for attending an illegal party is more serious than a speeding ticket – after a cabinet minister suggested the offences were similar.
Changing leaders would cause ‘instability’, says Cabinet minister
Oliver Dowden said it was “quite a speculation” to suggest Boris Johnson would receive further fines as part of the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into claims of Covid lockdown parties in Downing Street.
The Conservative party chairman, asked on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme about the prospect of additional fines for Boris Johnson, said: “I think in relation to these fines, we just have to let the police investigation happen.
“I think it is quite a speculation to assume there will be more fines issued.”
The Cabinet minister said he did not think a no confidence vote in the PM had become inevitable and argued it would cause “instability” to change leader.
Mr Dowden added: “He very, very much regret that happens and has issued a full apology for it, and I thought he gave a very clear explanation as to how it came about, and I’ve accepted that.
“The reason I have accepted that is because I do think it needs to be balanced against the very challenging times we face, the damage caused by instability and the uncertainty of changing leader at this time.”
There has always been a ‘possibility that Russia could come out of this victorious’, says Dowden
Russin forces have always been capable of winning the war on Ukraine, a Cabinet minister has said.
Asked what had influenced the Boris Johnson’s thinking when he conceded that Moscow could be victorious, Oliver Dowden told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “What I think we are seeing is both changing Russia tactics, so Russia concentrating on the east of Ukraine, and a Russian determination to keep on going and going.
“That’s why I think it is really important that we need to continue to tighten the ratchet on Russia, whether that’s, for example, the 120 armoured personnel carriers that the PM agreed with Zelensky just last week or whether it is continuing to increase aid and tighten our sanctions.
“So, the West has to respond in turn and we are willing to do so.”
Asked whether he thought Russia could win, he replied: “That has always been a possibility that Russia could come out of this victorious.
Rwanda migrant plans are unethical and unworkable, says Starmer
The Labour leader has warned that the government’s plan to send some unsuccessful asylum seekers to Rwanda was unworkable and unethical.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Sir Keir Stamer said: “I do think it is unethical, but I also think it is unworkable and I think it is going to cost a fortune.
“I also can’t help feeling, I’m afraid, that there is a bit of distraction tactics in this to stop everybody talking about the wrongdoing of the prime minister and the cost-of-living crisis.”
Sir Keir said the UK needed to join international operations to “bring down” human trafficking and smuggling gangs.
(EPA)
On introducing a reformed asylum system, he added: “I’m sorry, I don’t accept the proposition that it is simply not possible to have a better system than the one that we’ve got.”
He also criticised the “time it takes to process asylum claims in this country”, saying the rate had “gone through the floor”, with Britain doing 50 per cent of the cases it was doing five years ago: “It is taking forever.”
Cost of living crisis more important than Partygate for millions - Starmer
For millions of Britons the rising cost of living is a more important issue than Partygate, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.
Asked what is more important to the country now, lockdown parties or the cost of living, Sir Keir told the BBC: “For millions of people across the country, it’s the cost of living.”
He added: “Because local elections are on across the whole of the United Kingdom, I’m spending the whole of my time, when I don’t have to be in Parliament, across the country, and that is the single number one issue for so many people and they’re really struggling to pay their bills, and the response of the Government in the spring statement was woeful. They’ve made a bad situation worse.”
He defended the attention he paid to the partygate issue over the past week, saying on Tuesday he was responding to the PMs statement on receiving a fine.
PM brought Partygate focus on himself, says Labour leader
Sir Keir Starmer said Boris Johnson has himself to blame for the focus on partygate.
The Labour leader told the Sunday Morning on BBC One programme: “I don’t think anybody could accuse me of not concentrating on the cost of living in PMQs in the past month after month after month.
“But why are we talking about this? Answer: because the prime minister has broken the rules he made, and been fined by the police for doing it.
“No prime minister in the history of our country has even been in that position before. So he’s brought this on himself. His moral authority, his authority to lead, is shot through and his own side have now had enough of defending him.”
Keir Starmer says asylum seekers should apply to UK from ‘misery’ of French camps, to ease crisis
Keir Starmer is calling for asylum seekers trapped in “misery” in French camps to be allowed to apply to come to the UK, to ease the Channel crossings crisis.
Sir Keir said the move would create the “safe and legal routes” needed for asylum seekers and should be combined with international action to crack down on people traffickers.
Rayner smear a ‘new low from a party mired in scandal and chaos’, says Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer has hit out at suggestions Angela Rayner had been using a “Basic Instinct ploy” to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons.
The Mail on Sunday this morning claimed that Ms Rayner had been accused by her Tory colleagues of putting the prime minister “off his stride” in the chamber by crossing and uncrossing her legs.
Tweeting in support of the deputy Labour this morning, Sir Keir said: “The sexism and misogyny peddled by the Tories is a disgraceful new low from a party mired in scandal and chaos.”
‘No equivalence’ between Durham meeting and Downing Street parties, says Starmer
The Labour leader said there is “no equivalence” between accusations that he broke rules during the pandemic while in Durham and Downing Street being “probably the most fined workplace in the whole of the United Kingdom”.
Asked about being photographed drinking beer during a constituency meeting in Durham and if it is that different from chancellor Rishi Sunak’s actions reportedly linked to his fine, Sir Keir Starmer said “I don’t know the details of what the chancellor was up to”, adding he is “not in a position to comment on that”.
Sir Keir told the BBC: “I do know that over 50 fines have been issued in relation to what went on in Downing Street. That is extraordinary. It’s probably the most fined workplace in the whole of the United Kingdom. And we’re not at the end of these fines yet.”
He added: “No other prime minister in the history of our country has ever been found to have broken the law in office before. I don’t think we can just pass over it.”
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