Craig describes aide’s in- flight proposition

Colin Craig has told a jury that four days before his press secretary Rachel MacGregor resigned, she told him, “I want to be with you, I want to be more than just your press secretary.”

The former Conservative Party leader said he was on a flight with MacGregor four days before her resignation when she engaged him in a “whispered” conversation.

She told him things were not going well with her boyfriend and said Craig was the only one who really knew her.

Finishing giving evidence before a jury yesterday morning, Craig said he was “saddened” that the defamation trial had traversed his relationship with MacGregor and her resignation and allegations of sexual harassment.

He would have preferred that information to stay out of the public eye.

“I don’t want to hurt Rachel and this case is not about her. It’s about what Jordan [ Taxpayers’ Union president Jordan Williams, who is suing Craig for defamation] said about me and what I said about him,” he said.

He said there was “much” he would not say about MacGregor but wanted to let the jury know she had made “false allegations” about him.

“I always regarded our relationship as mutually affectionate. It became inappropriate . . . I apologised for my role in that.”

Craig said MacGregor’s sexual harassment complaint, which she made the day she resigned in 2014, “was like a bolt out of the blue”.

“She never, ever told me she was feeling threatened or harassed by me.”

Craig claims MacGregor had propositioned him and he had rejected her four days before she quit.

He told the court it was a Sunday and they were flying home from a campaign trip, engaging in a “warm and caring” conversation about MacGregor’s love life.

“She told me, ‘ I want to be with you, I want to be more than just your press secretary.’ At that point it was like someone tipped a bucket of water over me . . . How did she think it was going to work? Did she think I was going to leave my wife? I was upset.”

Craig said he tried to engage in “small talk” for the rest of the flight but it was uncomfortable and he thought MacGregor must have been feeling “rejected and hurt”.

“She resigned four days later,” Craig said.

Earlier this week, MacGregor told the jury the “indecent proposal” never happened.

She vehemently denied having romantic feelings for Craig and said the thought of that “disgusted” her.

Under cross- examination yesterday afternoon, Craig spoke further about his relationship with MacGregor and his personal life.

Jordan Williams’ lawyer Peter McKnight asked Craig pointedly how he felt about MacGregor.

“Were you besotted with Rachel?” he asked.

Craig responded: “I wouldn’t use that word to describe it, no . . . throughout I’ve used the word mutually affectionate. I would use the word fond, it was a very fond relationship.”

Craig said “the ideal” would have been a relationship akin to a brother and sister but “unfortunately” the pair became too close, which he regretted and said was a mistake.