A Tory contender in the running to be the next Mayor of London has been accused of groping a woman a decade ago.
Daniel Korski, a former No 10 special adviser who made the Conservative Party’s shortlist of hopefuls for next year’s mayoral race, denied groping TV producer Daisy Goodwin ‘in the strongest possible terms’.
The businessman was at a hustings last night, along with his two Tory rivals, Susan Hall and Moz Hossain, when an article written by Ms Goodwin appeared on the Times website and, according to a reporter present, he left the event.
Ms Goodwin has previously spoken about the alleged incident at a meeting in Downing Street, but decided to name Mr Korski in her first-person piece.
She wrote: ‘When we both stood up at the end of the meeting and went to the door, the spad [special adviser] stepped towards me and suddenly put his hand on my breast.
‘Astonished, I said loudly, “Are you really touching my breast?” The spad sprang away from me and I left.
‘Although I suppose legally his action could be called sexual assault, I have to say that I did not feel frightened.
Tory mayoral hopeful â¦@DanielKorskiâ© leaves a hustings meeting before the end. Unclear whether it was as a result of a story breaking â¦@thetimesâ© relating to his time in Downing St (the hustings started late and was running late). pic.twitter.com/z2DnyHdfIh
— Ross Lydall (@RossLydall) June 26, 2023
‘I was older, taller and very possibly wiser than the spad, and having worked for the BBC in the Eighties I knew how to deal with gropers.
‘What I felt was surprise and some humiliation. I was a successful award-winning TV producer with 40 or so people working for me; this was not behaviour that I would have tolerated in my office.
‘By the time I got back to work I had framed it as an anecdote about the spad who groped me in No 10. His behaviour was so bizarre that I couldn’t help seeing the humour in it. It was as if I had walked into Carry On Downing Street.’
A spokesperson for Mr Korski said: ‘In the strongest possible terms, Dan categorically denies any allegation of inappropriate behaviour whatsoever.’
Ms Goodwin said she wanted to name Mr Korski as he could become the Tory mayoral candidate.
She added: ‘Naively I assumed that if everyone already knew then his egregious behaviour would not be tolerated any more.
‘But now the spad who groped me, aka Daniel Korski, is running to be the Tory candidate for mayor of London. This I think is a reason to name him.’
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