Sir Lindsay Hoyle will haul the editor of the Mail on Sunday in for a meeting over a controversial article published about Angela Rayner this weekend.
The speaker of the Commons announced in parliament today that editor David Dillon will be summoned to discuss how an article that accused the deputy Labour leader of using Basic Instinct tactics to distract Boris Johnson came to light.
The newspaper’s political editor Glen Owen, whose byline appeared on the news piece, will also attend the meeting, along with Press Gallery chairman Andrew Woodcock.
Calls for Owen to have his press pass that gives him access to the Parliament estate removed have been sounded after its publication.
Caroline Nokes, chairman of Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee, last night wrote to Sir Lindsay urging him to censor the journalist.
She said the Tory MPs who had made the comments should be “hanging their heads in shame”.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), the industry watchdog, has received 5,500 complaints about the report.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said the decision to call in the senior journalists was “a matter for the Speaker” but added Sir Lindsay had “talked about respecting media freedom, which is something the Prime Minister is very passionate about”.
Ms Rayner yesterday described the report as “gutter journalism”.
The PM has also criticised the reporting, saying if the source of the newspaper’s story was identified they would face “the terrors of the earth”.
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