Cabinet office declines to investigate claims Daniel Korski
Cabinet office declines to investigate claims former Tory London mayoral hopeful Daniel Korski ‘groped’ a TV producer in Downing Street
- Mr Korski denies all allegations made against him
The Cabinet Office has declined to launch an investigation into claims that former Conservative hopeful Daniel Korski ‘groped’ a TV producer in Downing Street a decade ago.
Daniel Korski this week quit the contest to succeed Sadiq Khan after television producer Daisy Goodwin made a formal complaint over the alleged incident in No 10 while he served as a special adviser to then-prime minister David Cameron.
Ms Goodwin, the creator of hit ITV drama Victoria, alleges he touched her breast during a visit to No 10 around a decade ago when he was an adviser to former prime minister David Cameron.
Ms Goodwin was told that a senior official in the Cabinet Office told her she had two options; to report the incident to the police or do nothing, given the fact that Mr Korski no longer is employed by the Government, she told the Times.
The response was disappointing, she told the paper.
Daniel Korski has now withdrawn from the London mayoral race as a Conservative candidate after being accused of groping TV writer Daisy Goodwin
Ms Goodwin had previously complained about the Cabinet Office complaints process, describing it as ‘harder than trying to get a telephone engineer’
In an article for the Daily Mail published on Monday, Ms Goodwin described how the alleged incident had happened after she arrived at No 10 for talks with Mr Korski about the potential idea for a new TV show.
The meeting in Downing Street came after the pair met two weeks prior at a social event, where Mr Korski said he believed a show could be written about the trade department’s attempts to work with small and medium-sized businesses in exporting their products globally.
Ms Goodwin wrote: ‘At the end of the meeting we both stood up and Korski, to my astonishment, put his hand on my breast. I looked at the hand and then in my most affronted voice said, ‘Are you actually touching my breast?’
‘He dropped his hand and laughed nervously. I swept out in what can only be called high dudgeon.’
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said this week: ‘The Cabinet Office has been approached by an individual in relation to this matter and they have been directed to the relevant authorities for such allegations.’
Mr Korski has ‘categorically’ denied the claims made against him.
On Wednesday he said he was quitting ‘with a heavy heart’ after the allegation became a ‘distraction’ for him.
His resignation came after a rising number of frontbenchers started to distance themselves from his efforts to become mayor.
Children and families minister Claire Coutinho was joined by Tory education minister Robert Halfon reportedly ‘paused’ his support for the businessman and entrepreneur on Tuesday evening.
Other senior members of the party also declined to comment on whether they were still backing him, including Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and former Cabinet Minister Nadhim Zahawi.
Ms Goodwin had previously complained about the Cabinet Office complaints process, describing it as ‘harder than trying to get a telephone engineer’.
The TV producer had previously talked about the alleged assault, which happened in 2017, however she had not named Mr Korski as the culprit until just this week in an article in the Times.
When asked why his recollection of the meeting differed so much with Ms Goodwin’s, he told TalkTV: ‘I don’t know how she could have come away with that perception [that he assaulted her]. I certainly didn’t leave the meeting feeling that I had done anything wrong, and subsequently even wrote to her, congratulating her on some of her professional success. But I don’t really know why she felt the way she did.’
The incident is alleged to have happened at No 10, after the pair met to discuss the potential for a new TV show
Mr Korski also admitted that Ms Goodwin has not respond to his letters.
Asked whether he thought Ms Goodwin was ‘making it up’, he said: ‘Look, I can’t really explain that. All I can say is that she’s wrong and that I absolutely didn’t do what’s alleged.’
He also added that no similar accusations had ever been made against him and he didn’t expect anyone else to come forward with more claim of sexual assault ‘to the best of my knowledge, absolutely, I don’t expect anybody to’.
The Conservative Party has confirmed the race will go ahead with the two remaining candidates, Mozammel Hossain and Susan Hall, with hustings taking place as scheduled from June 12 to July 3, despite calls for the selection process to be reopened.
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