Prezza is insane!
Labour MP’s wife hits back after he says: I never groped her, because she’s built like a b***** barn door!
THE MP’s wife who accused John Prescott of groping her branded him ‘insane’ yesterday. Linda McDougall reacted with fury after the former deput y pr i me minister was recorded talking about the decade- old allegation to a journalist last week.
Denying claims he had pushed her up against a wall and put his hand up her skirt, the Labour peer said he would not have touched her because she was ‘built like a bloody barn door’ and that the ‘ f*** ing house would have fallen down’ if he had.
But Miss McDougall, who is married to former Labour MP Austin Mitchell, returned fire yesterday – saying it was ‘insane’ for Lord Prescott to bring up the incident 38 years after it had happened.
She also stood by the claim, which she first made to a newspaper in 2006, and said the peer’s behaviour was ‘very common for men at that time’.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘To bring it up not only 38 years after it happened, but a decade after I said anything about it is insane.
‘If he wants to say I look like a barn door, great. It just doesn’t worry me. I think that in the time since this incident happened we have a much more proactive reaction to the behaviour of men. What I was saying all those years ago was that it was very common for men at that time – no one my age will dispute this. It was a different country, people reacted in different ways to things.
‘I stand by what I said then but it couldn’t matter less and I have no idea why it’s been brought up again. He’s obviously very upset.’
The journalist and author first told the story to a newspaper following the sensation over Lord Prescott’s affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple.
She claimed the incident happened as guests arrived for an event at her home in 1978 after her husband had become an MP. Miss McDougall, who was 35 at the time, said: ‘As he came through the door, he pushed me quite forcefully against the wall and put his hand up my skirt.
‘Things were different in those days. He was just trying it on. There was no big fuss. I just rebuffed him politely. He shrugged and winked and we all carried on. But from that day I knew what sort of man he was.’ The alleged incident reared again last week when t he Labour peer was recorded talking about it to a journalist from the Daily Telegraph.
Lord Prescott brought up the subject after he apparently declined to attend a retirement party for 80-year-old Mr Mitchell, who stood down as MP for Great Grimsby in May.
He reportedly said: ‘ This is the man whose wife accused me of putting my hand up her skirt bloody 30 years ago.’ The peer, 77, then asks: ‘Have you seen his wife? Built like a bloody barn door, if I threw her against the wall, the f***ing house would fall down.’
Mr Mitchell said: ‘I have always considered John Prescott a friend, but his reaction to my invitation to come to my farewell dinner was churlish in the extreme. So I am assuming he is a wounded man at the moment and... best left alone.’
Lord Prescott yesterday said he did not wish to comment.
‘He shrugged and winked’