Television producer says she was groped in Downing Street by David Cameron aide
3 min read
A top television producer has claimed a senior aide to David Cameron touched her breast during a meeting in Downing Street.
Daisy Goodwin claimed the incident took place as they discussed her plans for a drama on the life of Queen Victoria.
Writing in the Radio Times, she said it "didn't occur" to her to report what had happened, but she had decided to speak out because of the Westminster sex scandal.
She said: "A few years ago I was summoned to Downing Street during the Cameron administration to talk to an official about an idea for a television programme. I had met the official at a dinner and he had followed up with an email.
"The official, who was a few years younger than me, showed me into a room dominated by a portrait of Mrs T and we sat at a table carved, he told me, from one piece of wood. Then to my surprise he put his feet on my chair (we were sitting side by side) and said that my sunglasses made me look like a Bond Girl.
"I attempted to turn the conversation to turning exports into unmissable TV. At the end of the meeting we both stood up and the official, to my astonishment, put his hand on my breast. I looked at the hand and then in my best Lady Bracknell voice said, ‘Are you actually touching my breast?’"
Ms Goodwin added: "He dropped his hand and laughed nervously. I swept out in what can only be called high dudgeon. I wasn’t traumatised, I was cross, but by the next day it had become an anecdote, The Day I Was Groped In Number 10 – an account of male delusion. It didn’t occur to me to report the incident, I was fine, after all, and who on earth would I report it to?
“But now in the light of all the really shocking stories that have come out about abusive behaviour by men in power from Hollywood to Westminster, I wonder if my Keep Calm and Carry on philosophy, inherited from my parents, was correct? The answer is, I am not sure."
Numerous MPs have faced sexual harassment allegations in recent weeks, but Ms Goodwin's intervention is the first time Downing Street itself has been implicated.
Among those accused are Damian Green, the Prime Minister's de facto deputy, who denies behaving inappropriately with a female journalist. A Cabinet Office inquiry is being held into whether he broke the ministerial code, and will also probe claims that pornography was found on his Commons computer in 2008 - an accusation he also denies.
Michael Fallon was forced to quit as Defence Secretary after admitting he acted inappropriately towards a number of women, while trade minister Mark Garnier is also being investigated over claims he made his former secretary buy two sex toys.
Bex Bailey, a former member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, claimed she was raped by a party official, while a female Westminster staffer has said she was attacked by an MP on a foreign trip.
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