Sexist comments about Angela Rayner, refusing to meet the Speaker – will right-wingers never learn?

David Dillon would rather foghorn a two-fingered salute from the front page of his newspaper, and play the role of the free press champion in a self-created drama

Right wingers like Dillon aren’t interested in being ‘a little kinder’ (PA Media)

The editor of the Mail on Sunday, David Dillon, has refused to attend a meeting with Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, to discuss the paper’s decision to publish misogynistic and classist comments an unnamed MP had made about Angela Rayner.

Dillon’s response, published in the Daily Mail, was defiant. He will “not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be” and “journalists must be free to report what they are told by MPs about conversations which take place in the House of Commons”.

The pressing bit of reporting in question concerned an anonymous Tory MP alleging that Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, would cross and uncross her legs during PMQs to distract Boris Johnson. Like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. But with clothes. You get the nauseating, sexist, belittling picture.

In an earlier statement, Sir Lindsay Hoyle said that he wanted to use the meeting to ask that “we are all a little kinder” and urge reporters to consider the feelings of MPs and their families when covering stories in parliament.

Right-wingers like Dillon, however, aren’t interested in being “a little kinder”, as his refusal to meet the speaker demonstrates. Dillon would rather foghorn a two-fingered salute from the front page of his newspaper, and play the role of the free press champion in a self-created drama – the brave and fearless editor standing up to an antiquated, overreaching, robe-wearing parliamentarian.

Perhaps this can become another ready-made culture war issue. How dare speakers in the House of Commons call for a little more kindness! We can print as much nastiness by cowardly MPs who won’t even put their name to smears as we like! Down with kindness, compassion and respect for others! Isn’t that the whole right-wing agenda in 2022 anyway, with a bit of boot smashing down into the faces of the poor and vulnerable thrown in for good measure?

As for the free press argument, the Mail on Sunday’s story about Rayner was not presented in a way that would’ve met the criteria for “public interest” journalism. Instead, it was framed as gossip and titillation – “Stone the crows!” – complete with a picture of Sharon Stone from the 1992 film. It was not a thoughtful or considered report highlighting the dangers of the misogyny and classism clearly still rife in our political culture.

In the public interest doesn’t mean something that the public is potentially interested in. The public interest is also the common good – in having a safe, healthy and fully-functioning democratic society. The claims about Angela Rayner will, arguably, make women – particularly working class women – feel less safe and less inclined to get involved in public life, which actively harms democracy.

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Want to be an MP? Well, get ready for anonymous comments to be published in national newspapers about how you distract poor, hapless men by moving your legs around, because that’s the only possible way you could influence a debate. Your lack of “Oxford Union debating training” means you really should shut up and know your place.

On ITV’s Lorraine, Rayner said yesterday: “When I heard the story was coming out and we rebutted it instantly… like this is disgusting, it’s completely untrue, please don’t run a story like that.

“All I worry about when I’m at the despatch box is doing a good job and being able to do justice to my constituents and the work I’m doing, so I was just really crestfallen that somebody had said that to a paper and a paper was reporting that.”

In his letter, Dillon wrote that the Mail on Sunday “deplores sexism and misogyny in all its forms” – sadly not enough to listen to Angela Rayner. He owes Rayner an apology, instead of doubling down and styling himself as the unrepentant hero of the tale. A little more kindness? Right-wingers like Dillon have never heard of it.