Angela Rayner has said a Conservative MP should be “ashamed of herself” for repeating a "misogynistic" smear against the deputy Labour leader.
A report in April claimed that Ms Rayner had attempted to distract Prime Minister Boris Johnson with her legs in the House of Commons, with the PM saying he “deplored the misogyny” at the time.
But newly appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Lia Nici has now repeated the claims against Ms Rayner, sparking a new row.
Ms Nici said: “Let’s just be honest here. We talk about honesty and integrity.
Angela Rayner
Kirsty O'Connor
Lia Nici
Parliament
“The deputy shadow leader decided it would be amusing to open her legs in the chamber and then brag to everybody that actually it was male members of the opposite party who had been looking at her and she was drinking on the terrace and laughing about it,” she told the BBC Politics North.
Ms Rayner has hit back, posting on Twitter: “Boris Johnson promised to unleash ‘the terrors of the earth’ on the Tory MPs spreading these vile smears.
“Instead he promoted them to ministerial office. They really are unfit to govern. Thank you Naz Shah for calling Lia Nici out on this. She should be ashamed of herself. “
Her comments come after Labour MP Naz Shah slammed Ms Nici’s comments during the debate, describing them as “disgraceful”.
Ms Shah: “I don’t know what’s more disappointing Lia.
“Listening to a fellow woman talk about another woman opening her legs in Parliament using that kind of misogynistic language, or the whataboutery to actually try and take it away from the failure of this Government not just now, but for the last 12 years of austerity.”
She added: “Let’s not forget you’re talking about whataboutery.
“It’s a Conservative MP who gave the Lib Dems Tiverton, after watching pornography in the chamber, and that was tractorgate.
“Let’s not talk about Angela Rayner and that language is appalling and needs calling out.