Publisher turns on mother in a most UnLady-like row over Rachel Johnson

There has not been a showdown like it in the otherwise unruffled 125-year history of The Lady.

In an interview at the weekend Julia Budworth, co-owner of the genteel women's weekly, directed an extraordinary broadside at high-profile editor Rachel Johnson, describing her as a "completely mad", penis-obsessed self-promoter with "no visual sense" whom she would like to see sacked.

But as the smoke cleared today it appeared that the target of the grande dame's wrath has survived the onslaught. Mrs Budworth's son Ben, who is managing director of the company that publishes The Lady, told the Standard he is putting faith in his appointee above loyalty to his mother.

He said: "As publisher I am very pleased with what Rachel Johnson's doing. She's probably made 5,000 decisions in the course of the past year and 4,990 of them have been absolutely right. I think to dwell on the 10 that may not have been right, as my mum has, is very unfair."

Mrs Budworth revealed that she has harboured misgivings about Ms Johnson, who is the Mayor's younger sister, ever since her appointment last year as the ninth editor of the world's oldest women's weekly.

She was driven to her current pitch of fury by a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary when Ms Johnson described The Lady as "a piddling little magazine that nobody reads". Her son, whose family have owned The Lady since it was launched in 1885, admitted that "to some extent this is revenge".

He described his mother as someone who "generally shouts first and thinks later", adding: "There isn't a shopkeeper in Suffolk who hasn't suffered a verbal assault of this sort from her."

He added: "It really is like something out of Wodehouse. I entirely approve of free speech and if mum has something to say I wouldn't seek to muzzle her, but she doesn't speak as an officer of The Lady. She has no executive powers and is only a 20 per cent shareholder."

Mrs Budworth also objected to a revamp of the magazine to attract younger readers, including putting Tracey Emin on the cover, which she said was driving away older readers.

Johnson, 44, admitted being "hurt" and "very, very surprised" by the attack. "She's completely entitled to say what she wants about me but I do have to correct some of the things she said about the magazine. Circulation is up seven per cent this year against falling sales of 15 per cent in the women's market. The redesign has gone very well, we are doing all the right things."

Johnson said the upside of the attack was that her alleged penis fixation had already doubled the number of her male Twitter followers.