Cameron’s ex-adviser: I am NOT Downing St groper
AN INQUIRY was launched last night to identify a former Downing Street aide accused of groping the writer of hit TV drama Victoria during a visit to No 10.
Speculation grew yesterday after Daisy Goodwin said a man who had worked under David Cameron had touched her breast.
The former prime minister yesterday expressed his ‘alarm, shock and concern’ about the allegations, which Downing Street said it was treating with the ‘utmost seriousness’.
A No 10 source said Miss Goodwin would be contacted to see if she wanted to take her allegations further. Last night, one of Mr Cameron’s former aides admitted meeting Miss Goodwin in Downing Street, but denied groping her.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I met Miss Goodwin in No 10 twice I think, and she may have met others too.
‘But I categorically deny any allegation of inappropriate behaviour. Any such allegation would not only be totally false but also totally bizarre.’
A spokesman for the former PM said: ‘David Cameron was first made aware of this serious allegation on Monday. He was alarmed, shocked and concerned to learn of it and immediately informed the Cabinet Office. As is usual practice, the Cabinet Office will thoroughly investigate any complaint made.’ Miss Goodwin, 55, told Radio Times that she was invited to Downing Street a few years ago to talk to one of Mr Cameron’s staff about an idea for a television programme. ‘I had met the official at a dinner and he had followed up with an email,’ she wrote. ‘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.’
As they sat side-by-side at the table, Miss Goodwin said he told her that her sunglasses made her look like a Bond Girl.
‘At the end of the meeting we both stood up and the official, to my astonishment, put his hand on my breast,’ she said, adding that her reaction was to impersonate the formidable Lady Bracknell from The Importance of Being Earnest.
‘I looked at the hand and then in my best Lady Bracknell voice said, “Are you actually touching my breast?”’ She told how he dropped his hand and laughed nervously, before she walked out of the build- ing. Miss Goodwin said at the time she did not feel traumatised and it did not occur to her to report what had happened. But in light of the Westminster sex harassment scandal, Miss Goodwin said she was not sure she had made the right choice.
Theresa May’s spokesman said: ‘Of course this is something that we would be concerned about. We are looking at it, and as we have said, wherever an allegation has been made we will make sure it’s treated with the utmost seriousness.’ A No 10 source added: ‘We are making efforts to contact her.
‘She may or may not wish to take this further. We are here and if she
‘Totally false and bizarre’
wants to speak to us we will listen and we will act appropriately.’ Miss Goodwin did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom was yesterday accused of taking ‘far too long’ to make contact with Tory activist Lisa Wade, who claimed she was raped by an MP’s aide.
Miss Wade had raised concerns with parliamentary authorities three months ago after the alleged assault. She told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show she was ‘disappointed but not surprised’ that she had only received a phone call from Mrs Leadsom on Monday.