Angela Rayner admitted that she made a conscious choice to wear trousers for an appearance on Tuesday's Lorraine following recent claims made by Conservative MPs.
The tories claimed that Labour's Deputy Leader crosses her legs in the Commons to distract Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The report claimed that Ms Rayner was deliberately attempting to put the PM "off his stride" when she stands in for Labour leader Keir Starmer at PMQs.
The right-wing Mail on Sunday also quoted MPs attacking Ms Rayner's PMQs debating skills which "she knows can't compete with Boris's Oxford Union debating training".
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly about the article, Ms Rayner said: “I’ve been overwhelmed, because when I heard that the story was coming out we rebutted it instantly and was like, ‘This is disgusting, it’s completely untrue, please don’t run a story like that'.
“Because I’ve got teenage sons, I was with my teenage sons, I felt really sad again that my weekend… I was trying to prepare my children for seeing things online that they don’t want to see their mum portrayed that way.
"And I felt really down about that, but I was overwhelmed by peoples’ response because I just thought, ‘Is that what people expect and think about what I do?'
“All I worry about when I go to the dispatch box is doing a good job and being able to do justice to my constituents and the work that I’m doing. I was just really crestfallen that someone had said that to a paper and a paper was reporting that.”
Angela continued: “It wasn’t just about me as a woman, saying that I was using the fact that I am a woman against the Prime Minister - which I think is quite condescending to the Prime Minister, as well as shows you what his MPs think about his behaviour - but it was steeped in classism as well about where I come from and how I grew up…”
"I see you're wearing trousers today," Lorraine then commented, before asking: "Is that something that has to be at the forefront of your mind? What you're wearing?"
Angela replied: "I did think that because the last time I was on Good Morning Britain, that's the picture that the press put out in that article.
"It wasn't me in Parliament, that picture was when I was on Good Morning Britain and they literally put that picture out as if I was showing skirt which was actually a tailored dress, it was John Lewis tailored dress - for me that's quite posh.
"But I consciously today felt that I wanted to put some trousers on so that people didn't think that I was...
"I wanted to be defiant as well because I don't think women should be told how to dress, but I didn't want to distract from the fact that actually it's not about my legs.
"I didn't want people at home thinking, 'let's have a look to see what her legs are like and how short her skirt is or not'." Ms Rayner added.
"There needs to be a cultural shift and calling it out," Angela then said, before admitting: "I feel like I'm being judged for what I wear as opposed to what I'm saying."
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV and ITV Hub.
