Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Lindsay Hoyle should be quiet on Angela Rayner

The Speaker should stop speaking

(Getty images)

What’s up with Lindsay Hoyle? On Monday, the Speaker opened the afternoon session of parliament with a statement about the puerile gossip surrounding Angela Rayner. He called the story in the Mail on Sunday, ‘misogynistic’ and ‘offensive to women in parliament.’ Such tasteless yarns, he went on, ‘can only deter women who might be considering standing for election – to the detriment of us all.’ His remedy was to call two meetings. First, a tete-a-tete with Rayner herself. Secondly, a conference with the Mail on Sunday editor and the chair of the press lobby.

Several questions arise. The less urgent issue is why he wished to meet Rayner personally? She strikes very few people as the type who needs a mug of tea and a cosy chat with a sympathetic older gentleman to soothe her nerves. The deputy leader of the Labour party can look after herself. Hoyle appears to have singled her out because she’s a woman and therefore in need of his sage advice and steadying hand. Plenty of male MPs get abused every day without being invited to the Wellness Centre in Speaker’s House for a therapy session on beanbags, joss sticks scenting the air and wind-chimes tinkling in the breeze. Hoyle is nobody’s spiritual guardian. And Rayner would be justified in feeling patronised.

He ought to step back, speak less, and reflect on his role and its proper limitations

His statement that misogyny stops women from taking part in politics sounds like a groundless exaggeration. If he were correct, scores of mortified female MPs would have resigned their seats yesterday to make way for tough, square-jawed males who are better equipped for the bear-pit of parliament than their feeble, wilting sisters. Hoyle’s thinking is out of date.

The summons to meet senior journalists is more problematic because its status is unclear.

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