The press must be free to make mistakes

THE Mail on Sunday, generally regarded as a pretty unerring judge of what interests its readers, looks to have made a miscalculation with its story about Labour's deputy leader and the unfounded allegation that she crosses and uncrosses her legs in the hope of putting Boris Johnson off his stride at Prime Minister's Questions.

- PHILIP BOWERN

But who should be the judge of whether it was right to run the story? Well, that should be the readers of The Mail on Sunday and those in charge of press regulation. Yet the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, is meeting with the newspaper's editor, David Dillon, presumably to mark his card about the coverage. That looks worryingly like political interference in the freedom of the press.

Yes, it was as pretty much everyone agrees a ridiculous claim to make against Angela Rayner and a highly distasteful and misogynistic article to run.