This research develops an intersectional understanding of the portrayal of White, working-class origin women politicians in UK newspaper coverage via a single case analysis of the reporting of Angela Rayner and her supposed attempt to ‘distract’ the UK Prime Minister. A Dual process feminist-influenced discourse analysis was conducted on data sampled across a 4-week period and comprising 74 UK newspaper articles (47,000 words). Two overarching discourses were identified - ‘fish wives’ and ‘working-class heroes’ – which functioned to both confer and revoke respectability. Despite celebratory potential, these discourses reproduced the ‘elite male as norm’ and classed the gendered double bind to potentially restrict working-class women’s ability to adopt, reject, or demolish elite, masculine idealised standards. They also served to caution against working-class women politicians - framed as inherently dangerous (e.g., ‘inner fishwife’) and disrespectable (e.g. uncouth and hypersexualised) compared to White middle-class feminised standards. Therefore, classed and gendered boundaries were re-asserted via a presentation of working-class women politicians as unworthy and potentially dangerous. This technology of governance has implications for voting decisions, our shared understanding of the overall appropriateness of working-class women in positions of power as well as our treatment towards them, while sustaining elite (White) masculinised power and privilege.