New minister Lia Nici repeats Angela Rayner legs slur

A newly-appointed minister has repeated claims made against Labour's Angela Rayner that she "opened her legs" to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons.

A newspaper article in April quoted Tory MPs who said the deputy leader tried to put Mr Johnson off.

Lia Nici repeated the claims, which Mr Johnson previously called "sexist, misogynistic tripe", during a BBC interview that aired on Sunday.

Ms Rayner said the Tory MP for Great Grimsby "should be ashamed of herself".

The BBC has contacted the Conservative Party for a response.

Ms Nici made the comments during an interview on the BBC Politics North programme following her appointment as levelling-up minister.

In a discussion with Labour Bradford West MP Naz Shah, Ms Nici said: "Let's just be honest here. We talk about honesty and integrity.

"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."

In response, Ms Shah described the minister's comments as "absolutely disgraceful".

"I don't know what's more disappointing Lia," Ms Shah said.

"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."

The original claims were made in a Mail on Sunday article earlier this year when an unnamed Tory MP made the allegation that Ms Rayner tried to distract Mr Johnson in Parliament by crossing and uncrossing her legs.

Ms Rayner dismissed that story as a "perverted smear" that showed women in politics faced misogyny every day.

In response, Mr Johnson threatened to unleash "the terrors of the earth" on the source behind the comments if they were ever identified.

The prime minister told reporters at the time it was "hard to say" if there was a cultural problem in Parliament, but described the story about Ms Rayner as "the most appalling load of sexist, misogynist tripe".

In her tweet following the programme's broadcast, Ms Rayner thanked her fellow Labour MP for "calling Lia Nici out on this".

"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," she tweeted.

"They really are unfit to govern."

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