Angela Rayner Attack - Er, Hello Tories

Shaun Bailey, who represents West Bromwich West for the Tories, stood up in the Commons last week and told the Honourable and Right Honourable members that his Mum had phoned him at 2330 hours the previous evening. What, one imagines, was the point of that? It was his way of attacking Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Shaun says his Mum rang ...

As the BBC has reported, he “said that his mother received a phone call on Tuesday night ‘using that type of word, because she was my mother’. He added that his staff had also been abused … He said that the language was ‘abhorrent’ and called on Ms Rayner to appear in the Commons chamber to apologise ‘not just to us but to my mum as well’”.

... and IT'S ALL HER FAULT

This was then picked up by party chair Amanda Milling, who sent Labour leader Keir Starmer a letter demanding he take Very Stern Action against Ms Rayner. The letter was signed by more than 100 Tory MPs. That this stunt was pulled at the same time as many of those MPs were getting in in the neck not for what Ms Rayner said, but because they had voted not to extend free school meals to holiday periods, was not allowed to enter.

Poring over Daily Mail deputy political editor John Stevens’ claimed exclusive, former Government lawyer Carl Gardener was not impressed. “Whatever the truth here, you can't have it both ways. If you complain that this kind of remark has led to you being abused, you can't also dismissively say that your bosses' remarks (e.g. about lawyers) have nothing to do with abuse or violence that follow”. Hello Priti Patel.

Also, Labour can play that game too: Ellie Reeves, the shadow solicitor general, has written to Ms Patel on the subject of her inflammatory comments. Worse for the Tories, another thought soon occurs: alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has been indulging in inflammatory language for many years.

Most specifically, Bozo likened Muslim women wearing the burqa to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”. And as the Guardian later reported, “In the week following that article, Tell Mama said anti-Muslim incidents increased by 375% - from eight incidents the previous week, to 38 in the following. Of the 38 anti-Muslim hate incidents, 22 were directed at Muslim women who wore the niqab, or face veil”. And there was more.

Johnson has also referred to gay men as “tank-topped bumboys”. He’s talked about people in Africa being “picaninnies with watermelon smiles”. His goat shagging dig at the Turkish President has not helped international relations, nor prejudice against Turks. Yet his MPs seem to have no problem with this. But when a Labour MP, who has just lost a close relative to Covid-19, says a hurty word, all hell breaks looks.

In reality, this is a mere smokescreen, a dead cat: the Tories are taking a caning in the court of public opinion over their inept handling of the free school meals issue, bested by a footballer to whose latest letter Bozo has yet to reply. Moreover, Ms Milling and her boss know that Angela Rayner is a hugely popular politician: their attack is is also a sly and nasty attempt to suggest to the public that she isn’t as nice as she looks.

Instead, more of that public already know that if anyone is nastier than they look, it’s the Tories. You don’t want to be called names, don’t shit on your electorate.

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