Angela Rayner lashes out and calls Sunak “pint sized loser”.

Germanshepherdsmum

Do you have evidence for that? Can she converse easily with world leaders without shaming our country?

Like Liz Truss could do you mean?

Germanshepherdsmum

Do you have evidence for that? Can she converse easily with world leaders without shaming our country?

No, I don't.

I'd be interested to see if the state of her undies, or her mums illness, or her young motherhood would be detrimental to that, though.

MissAdventure

Germanshepherdsmum

Do you have evidence for that? Can she converse easily with world leaders without shaming our country?

No, I don't.

I'd be interested to see if the state of her undies, or her mums illness, or her young motherhood would be detrimental to that, though.

Blimey!!

Gor Blimey, indeed!

What is detrimental is her refusal to speak as befits her position. That doesn’t involve speaking with a cut-glass accent. I have made several references to the similarity of Alan Johnson’s background and the way that he made himself into someone who could converse with anyone and gain their respect. Rayner has made no effort whatsoever to do that. Strangely, none of her supporters will comment on the gulf between Johnson and Rayner. The one a gentleman, the other reminiscent of a fishwife.

Her supporters have been too busy rebutting claims that she flashed at boris, was pregnant at school, comes from the gutter, is showing "her roots" and all the rest of the old tripe being bandied about.

It's important to stamp out discrimination.

Perhaps they could take a moment to comment on why Johnson made such an effort and Rayner makes none.

There is no discrimination - it’s about someone knowing how to represent their country appropriately and with dignity.

So you think the tories have done that?

Yes.

Ok, well there is nothing I can say to that.

From Private Eye.

From Dorries book

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Nadine Dorries calls Rishi Sunak a 'privileged posh boy'
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The new book by Nadine Dorries, Boris Johnson’s most devoted Cabinet ally, contains a series of extraordinary claims about his downfall.

Seen by many as part of a campaign to help Mr Johnson return to No 10, the book also includes scathing comments about many senior Conservatives.

Most of those in Ms Dorries’ firing line are accused of being responsible for his removal from office in 2022 after a number of personal and political scandals.

She calls Rishi Sunak a “coward” and a “stooge”, dubs Michael Gove a “smiling assassin” and describes Dominic Cummings as a “sadist”.

In a series of interviews with Ms Dorries for the book, Mr Johnson says Mr Sunak’s government is “nuts” and claims the Tory party is “drifting” towards an election defeat to Keir Starmer’s Labour.

Further lurid allegations are attributed to anonymous Tory sources. The Times’ reviewer called it “the single weirdest book I have ever read”, while The Telegraph suggested that Ms Dorries had “lost the plot” with her wild conspiracy claims.

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Here are some highlights from Ms Dorries’ book, The Plot. The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson – which themes every single chapter around James Bond.

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Johnson says ‘totally nuts’ Sunak ‘drifting’ to election defeat

Mr Johnson accuses Mr Sunak of failing to inspire – arguing that the PM has given voters “nothing to rally behind”. The former PM also accused his successor of betraying his legacy on levelling up, HS2 and tax.

‘‘The government should be cutting corporation tax… instead he’s putting it up; totally nuts. Where’s the vision?” he tells Ms Dorries.

“The whole thing needs a massive kick in the pants. It’s all drifting. Unless we get a grip the local election results will be repeated at the General Election and Starmer will be a complete disaster.”

Boris Johnson says Tories ‘drifting’ to defeat
Boris Johnson says Tories ‘drifting’ to defeat (PA Media)
Johnson feels like a ‘caged beast’ out of power

The former Tory leader tells the author: “You ask where I am. I’m seething. I’m a caged beast. I’m a coiled mamba. We’re losing the plot.” Yet Mr Johnson also claims that he is not bitter. “Never be bitter, no good can come from it.”

And he suggests he could still be in power if not for Mr Sunak’s allies. “We could have kept the whole thing going if people had not prevailed upon Rishi to do something that was not fundamentally in his interest or in the best interest of the country.”

Dorries says Tory MPs determined to stop Johnson comeback

The author claims some Conservatives want to stop a comeback because they feel guilty about getting rid of him. “There are Tory MPs who would rather eat their own eyeballs than have him back, and that’s the truth of it. They have the tribal guilt of regicide on them.”

Sunak described as ‘coward’ and ‘talentless’ boy band member

Ms Dorries writes in the book: “Rishi is a coward.” And she also quotes an anonymous source saying: “He’s an empty suit in a boy band on autotune. Politically talentless… a puppet. Feels nothing and knows even less.”

Joseann

If the remark fell off her tongue, then what other personal put-downs is she likely to come out with as deputy PM in highly charged situations?
If she planned the remark all along, doesn't that just prove her lack of confidence and her shallowness - that she has to resort to insults about personal appearance to get attention?

Personally, I don't want everyone to become desensitised to offensive personal insults referring to their bodies. It crosses a line for me.

Personally, I don't want everyone to become desensitised to offensive personal insults referring to their bodies. It crosses a line for me.

Thank you Joseann for expressing so well my own sentiments on the matter.

I don't believe - as Curtaintwitcher appears to - that her roots had a huge impact on her choice of words; if you take a look back at some of the comments made by MPs across the board - including the well-educated Boris Johnson - it's quite obvious that personal insults are not confined to any particular class.

I long for the days - if they ever existed even - when politicians targeted each other for their thinking or their ideas, and their 'put-downs' were more cerebral, sometimes even witty. But the bar has dropped, and that happened long before AR made her comment.

Curtaintwitcher

She's showing her roots. She makes personal remarks and flashes her knickers at the opposition (actually there seems to be doubt as to whether she was actually wearing any)!
This is the woman who might be the Prime Minister very soon, if Starmer is forced to step down.

The Basic Instinct “joke” was just one of the many insults AR has had to deal with as a woman (let alone a Northern one from a council house ) in Parliament. Her response:

The Mail implies today that I somehow enjoy being subjected to sexist slurs. I don’t. They are mortifying and deeply hurtful. ‘She loves it really’ is a typical excuse so many women are familiar with. But it can’t be women’s responsibility to call it out every time. I don’t need anyone to explain sexism to me – I experience it every day.

Boris Johnson gave assurances he would unleash ‘the terrors of the earth’ on the Tory MPs spreading this vile sexism. I hope to hear what he’ll be doing about it today.

No terrors of the earth were unleashed. The Tory MPs who originated the slur weren’t named and shamed. But an apology was made by Johnson on behalf of the true gentlemen involved.

How very depressing it is to see a woman on here continuing to promote their sordid fantasies.

Parsley3

From Private Eye.

Sums it up nicely, Parsley!

Anniebach

Criticism of her voice, not accent’ criticism of what she says,
but mocking her from coming from a council house and had was a child carer is sickening

Totally agree. What AR said in the HoC yesterday may have been unwise, even rude, but the comments on here, by women, aimed at a woman who overcame huge challenges as a child and young woman, are disgusting.

Germanshepherdsmum

Do you have evidence for that? Can she converse easily with world leaders without shaming our country?

Our country has been shamed by its 'leaders' so much in the past few years, culminating in a Bill which legislates for black being white despite all evidence to the contrary. I really doubt that a regional accent is going to add much, if anything to the low esteem it must already have internationally.

Germanshepherdsmum

Do you have evidence for that? Can she converse easily with world leaders without shaming our country?

Do you think that Lee Anderson could have done so? Working class, blunt, some would say vulgar, but a man of course. I am not a huge fan of AR, but I do despair when women who tell us how hard they had to work to get how they are then sneer at other women who have done the same.

Lee Anderson has nothing to do with it. Some women work hard to get on and to ‘fit in’, which is an important part of ‘getting on’. I know that only too well. Rayner is where she is courtesy of the unions and she has no intention of ‘fitting in’. Some may like women who speak coarsely and screech. I don’t.

Shocking! Uppity woman* who should be wiping floors for the gentry wiping the floor with them instead.

* Qoute from the right-wing pundit Matthew Parris, pointing out that the reason many Tories despise Rayner is because they genuinely believe she’s uppity.

Germanshepherdsmum

Lee Anderson has nothing to do with it. Some women work hard to get on and to ‘fit in’, which is an important part of ‘getting on’. I know that only too well. Rayner is where she is courtesy of the unions and she has no intention of ‘fitting in’. Some may like women who speak coarsely and screech. I don’t.

I don't like men or women who screech, I also dislike people who sneer and speak down to others. As I said, I am not a great fan of Ms Rayner but I admire her strengths and her determination. I am disturbed by the number of posters who are less concerned about what AR said, than they are by how she said it.

I can’t help thinking that you have misunderstood what being Deputy PM actually means. This explains it.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/deputy-prime-minister-first-secretary-state
Being Deputy PM does not automatically entail standing in for the PM on foreign affairs, it’s highly likely that if a PM is incapacitated it would be the Foreign Secretary who would do that.

So Ms Rayner is allowed to body-shame Sunak but if she gained weight and he called her "fat", all hell would break loose.

For the most part, PMQs is just a weekly pantomime of members of different sides taking shots at one another. It could be dispensed with at no detriment to the serious business of government.

Thank you Casdon. I was going to say the same thing.

The post of Deputy Prime Minister has no consitutional ranking. The holder of the position has no right to automatic succession to the premiership.

There was no deputy prime minister for over six years between 8 May 2015 to 15 September 2021. Before Dowden’s appointment, we had Raab (and Coffey for 50 days under Truss).

GSM writes: it’s about someone knowing how to represent their country appropriately and with dignity.

In which case Raab failed rather spectacularly. And before anyone accuses me of deflecting. He had the post. Rayner has not and is yet to be proven.

We had a man who does not support the Human Rights Act; a man who, at the time of the Afghan crisis in August 2021, chose to remain on holiday. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee said the government was "missing in action" Raab allegedly avoided communicating with "those he found to be challenging voices”; a man who resigned on 21 April 2023, after an independent investigation found that his behaviour towards civil servants at the Ministry of Justice and at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had amounted to bullying.

so much for ... knowing how to represent their country appropriately and with dignity ...

One thing Rayner doesn’t do is shrink from a challenge - as Dowden so clearly did yesterday in PMQs. If she does become Deputy Prime Minister her “regional accent” - all accents are regional - whether they come from London or Lancashire - will make no difference. I doubt many international politicians can differentiate between regional variants of English.

Give me a women with fire in her belly any day over these men.

Pint-sized is not a derogatory term. Fishwife is. Check the OED. Again, the detractors are not practising what they preach.

The oddest thing, for me, about this thread is that on another thread we have condemnation of Emily Thornberry for a photo which was interpreted by right wingers as sneering at the working classes and here we have lots of sneering at a working class woman by right wingers... 🤔