Men’s night out: how reporter brought down charity

glass, rip off your knickers and dance on that table’.”

Marriage told the Washington Post in a phone interview that she, too, was harassed but did not include that detail in her story because she wanted to focus on the young women who were abused. “I was propositioned and groped and received some very lewd comments,” she said.

She said that after the event, “I genuinely felt incredibly sad and upset by what I had seen, the fact that the upper echelons of our society are operating this way in 2018.”

Marriage said she managed to stay in “professional mode” for the rest of the workweek. But then, on the Saturday after the event, “I went to see my parents and I burst out crying”. The other hostesses, who were paid about US$211 ($287), were between the ages of 19 and 23, many of them students, some actors, dancers and models looking for a little extra money because their work is unstable, “especially in January when everyone is kind of broke”.

Marriage said that while many of the women were “disturbed and alarmed by what they experienced”, others “enjoyed” working the event, especially if “they were doing it with a group of friends, which makes it a lot easier than doing it on your own”.

She said she had been tipped off about the dinner.

“We had reports from former hostesses that women weren’t treated very well,” she said. That prompted her to pitch the story to editors at the FT, she said.

“The investigation isn’t over yet,” she said. More stories are likely.

The Financial Times, a global newspaper based in London, is among the most respected news

I genuinely felt incredibly sad and upset by what I had seen, the fact that the upper echelons of our society are operating this way in 2018.

organisations in the world. But it is known more for its precise reporting of global finance and business and its clever columnists than for undercover reporting.

After Wednesday’s story broke, including some undercover video, the outrage was immediate.

Members of the House of Commons raised questions about the presence at the dinner of Conservative Party lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi, the Undersecretary of State for Children and Families. He claimed to have left the event early. “It is safe to say that Mr Zahawi will not be attending the event in the future,” a spokesman for Prime Minister May said.

A spokesman for May told the Post that the Prime Minister was “uncomfortable” with the FT allegations and noted that “clearly this is an event to which she would not be invited”.

The deputy leader of Britain’s Liberal Democratic Party, Jo Swinson, called the story “simply stomachchurning”. “More than 300 rich businessmen were perfectly happy to attend such an event, which shows the rotten, sexist culture still alive and kicking in parts of the business community. Time’s up on this crap,” she said.

“I should imagine” that the charities benefiting from the event “will be appalled that their good name has been sullied in this way”, Tory MP Anna Soubry told the Guardian.

On Twitter, people turned their wrath on the charities as well as on some of the attendees, particularly Meller, a businessman who was just honoured by the Queen as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

In a statement to the FT, the Presidents Club, noting that it had raised “several million pounds for disadvantaged children” at the event, said organisers were “appalled” by the allegations. Investigations would be conducted, it said, and appropriate action taken.

Soon afterward, it announced its disbandment.

Madison Marriage