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Angela Rayner last night risked accusations of a cover-up over the sexism row that has convulsed Westminster.
Labour’s deputy leader had described a story in last week’s Mail on Sunday – which said she had joked with Tory MPs about crossing and uncrossing her legs to distract Boris Johnson – as ‘disgusting’ and ‘completely untrue’.
Amid a storm of criticism on social media, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle demanded a meeting with the newspaper’s editor David Dillon.
Mr Dillon rejected the call, saying that journalists should ‘not take instruction’ from parliamentary officials.
Several MPs have supported the claim the Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner (Pictured next to Sir Kier Starmer) made jokes about crossing and uncrossing her legs to distract Boris Johnson
A Labour spokesman said the story was ‘completely made up' was asked for a comment
Yesterday The Daily Telegraph reported that two Conservative MPs had told the newspaper they had heard Mrs Rayner laughing publicly about the idea that she could put off the Prime Minister by ‘giving him a flash’.
The witnesses said she had been joking about the suggestion that she was crossing and uncrossing her legs during a light-hearted discussion on the Commons terrace about two months ago.
Separately, The Mail On Sunday has now spoken to a total of four Tory MPs – the original source and three others, including one woman – all of whom supported this account and contradicted the insinuation by Mrs Rayner and her allies that the claims were cooked up by sexists.
One of the MPs, describing a night on the Commons terrace earlier this year, said Mrs Rayner had initiated the discussion of the issue. They said she had spoken of giving the Prime Minister ‘a flash’.
A second MP claimed that Mrs Rayner had referenced the thriller Basic
