Angela Rayner: Commissioner demands investigation over misogyny

Wales' future generations commissioner Sophie Howe

The MP responsible for "misogynistic" claims about Angela Raynor should be expelled, Wales' future generations commissioner has said.

Sophie Howe spoke out after claims about Labour's deputy leader in a Sunday newspaper.

Politicians have condemned the suggestion that she tries to distract the prime minister in the Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs.

Ms Rayner has said women in politics face misogyny every day.

Sophie Howe said that only removing the Conservative MP or MPs responsible for the comments from their political party would suffice.

"The prime minister should be conducting an investigation," she said.

"Why would we not be investigating this sort of misogyny [given] the long term impact it has, not just on individuals, but on the wider issue of getting women into politics?

"They should be taking robust action, expelling them from the party, and indeed any party that has people conveying this sort of misogyny".

Boris Johnson has suggested he would discipline the source of "misogynistic" claims.

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Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said women politicians face misogyny every day

Earlier Ms Howe told Radio Wales Breakfast how the comments had brought back the same feelings of "anger and utter frustration" from her own experience.

In 2015, Ms Howe gave an interview to the BBC and was later accused by Ruth Price, an ex-Plaid Cymru councillor, of crossing her legs "Sharon Stone style" on the television.

"I was being contacted by a whole range of different media outlets," Ms Howe said.

"But the main thing was I was contacted by my 15-year-old son, who was in school at the time, and he text me and said 'Mum, what's going on? All the boys are talking about you and something about Sharon Stone'. I don't think he even knew who Sharon Stone was.

"And then having to explain to him and my other children what this was all about, how stupid this was and how outrageous this was."

'Outrageous and unacceptable'

She added: "We question why there aren't more women in politics and public life and it's because this is the absolute rubbish that they have to put up with.

"I was just doing what every woman does. I was sat in an uncomfortable way and I crossed and uncrossed my legs. I hadn't even thought about it.

"Most women don't think about that sort of thing, nor should they have to."

Sophie Howe

Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe wants the misogynistic comments about Labour's deputy leader to be investigated

She added that such comments can have a lasting impact.

"If you Google my name one of the things that will come up is a headline which says, 'Top cop accused of Sharon Stone moment'.

"People who say these things, they don't realise the wider implications that these things can have on women in politics and public life."

Ms Howe was adamant that women must not alter their own behaviour in response and said any such comments should be taken seriously.

"I think its really important for women to own who they are," she said.

"I am not going to change who I am to conform to misogyny and these sorts of outrageous and unacceptable comments."

Boris Johnson has contacted Ms Rayner to make clear that he views claims about her in a Sunday newspaper misogynistic.

On Sunday, Mr Johnson criticised the comments tweeting: "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."

Ms Howe said he should go further and investigate the comments.

"The problem is with the people making these comments, not with me and not with Angela Rayner.

"If I was Boris Johnson I would be holding an investigation to find out who made these comments. I would be putting them through a disciplinary process."

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