ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE MP Angela Rayner has made her first public comments about the Andrew Gwynne WhatsApp message furore.
Denton MP Gwynne was sacked as a health minister and suspended from the Labour Party, along with nine Tameside councillors, after controversial messages in the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ group were revealed.
Former Audenshaw councillor Oliver Ryan, now MP for Burnley, was also suspended as an investigation has begun into the group – in which racist, sexist, antisemitic and misogynistic comments have allegedly been made.
Deputy Prime Minister Rayner – who represents Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Droylsden and Dukinfield in Parliament – is believed to have been the subject of some statements.
It is said that former minister Mr Gwynne mocked Ms Rayner in the group, sharing a vulgar tweet about her performing a sex act.
Speaking in an interview for ITV’s Peston programme, fellow Labour MP Rayner said comments made by Mr Gwynne and others in the WhatsApp group undermines the trust the public place in politicians.
“I was incredibly disappointed to see the contents of that WhatsApp group,” she told programme host Robert Peston.
“I think it was disgusting some of what was said in that group.
“I am genuinely shocked by it. It’s not what I recognise from the councillors that I interact with because obviously I’m the neighbouring MP and Tameside is my borough as well.
“For me, we’ve got to have standards in public life. People put a lot of trust in us and I felt that those standards were completely disregarded and I was disgusted by what I saw in the group – not least just about comments around me or other Members of Parliament but the disdain in the comments that were made about their constituents which I found absolutely abhorrent.”
The interview with Ms Rayner will be aired in full on Wednesday night (February 12) on the programme on ITV, which starts at 10.45pm.
As public calls for Mr Gwynne to resign as an MP grow, a sign was posted on his constituency office door at Denton Town Hall which, put simply, said ‘Out, out, out’. It has since been removed.
The Correspondent has also told how, according to the party’s own report, Tameside’s Labour group is ravaged by infighting and differences.
Concerns over ‘deep factional divides’, a reluctance to tackle issues and a ‘poor culture of campaigning’ have been raised.