The Labour Party and its many media allies have spent much of the past week in a state of prune-faced hypocrisy, denouncing The Mail on Sunday for accurately reporting what Angela Rayner had in fact openly said to fellow MPs.
It is easy to understand why Ms Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, might want to divert attention from her own behaviour. The party she helps to lead is constantly pulling long, disapproving faces about actions and words which used to be regarded as harmless but must now be pursued with fury and, if possible, prosecuted as thought crimes.
Hardly a week goes by without demands from the Left-wing establishment that somebody should be sacked or cancelled for such an offence.
The Labour Party and its many media allies have spent much of the past week in a state of prune-faced hypocrisy, denouncing The Mail on Sunday for accurately reporting what Angela Rayner had in fact openly said to fellow MPs
Of course some of the things which are exposed and attacked are truly wicked and need to be acted against. But not all of them are, as we see, and these purse-lipped moralists are themselves no better than they ought to be.
Labour greets such events like a Victorian maiden lady glimpsing an unclothed table leg, shrieking for her smelling salts, even though it must know that plenty of its own supporters, perhaps even some members of its upper echelons, are often guilty of saying such things. Indeed, modern Left-wing ‘alternative’ comedy (to which there is in fact very little alternative) is packed with such material.
As we know from Sir Keir Starmer’s contortions over his lockdown beer break in Durham, Labour does not think the rules in general apply to itself. After weeks of yelling about Partygate, Sir Keir crossly tries to pretend that there is no parallel between it and his own behaviour. As we know from the party’s reluctant and long-delayed admission that Ms Rayner was present at this event (how can they not have known?), Labour’s machine puts truth a poor second after its propaganda needs.
It was fascinating to see that what Ms Rayner no doubt regarded as amusing conversation was suddenly converted into evil and unforgivable ‘misogyny’ when it was accurately described by others and reported equally accurately in this newspaper.
Glen Owen, The Mail on Sunday’s Political Editor and author of the story at the centre of the row, puts it neatly in his account of these events today.
He says: ‘Ms Rayner was professing herself outraged by something she had laughed about before – and had herself helped to propagate.’
As we know from Sir Keir Starmer’s contortions over his lockdown beer break in Durham, Labour does not think the rules in general apply to itself
Any decent person will be shocked at the vicious and obscene tone of the Twitter abuse of Mr Owen which followed. The episode will, in the long run, turn out to be embarrassing for Ms Rayner and all those who joined the electronic lynch mob. Yet they have still to climb down properly, let alone express true regret for their behaviour.
Meanwhile, the basic point remains: The Mail on Sunday was attacked for reporting what Ms Rayner had said.
You might have thought that in the midst of the biggest foreign-policy crisis in Europe since 1945, with naked war raging in Ukraine, Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition might have had more important things to do than to make unjust attacks on this newspaper and Mr Owen.
