The Prime Minister’s father Stanley Johnson has been accused of inappropriately touching a senior Conservative MP and a journalist.
Caroline Nokes, a former minister and chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, claimed the now 81-year-old forcefully smacked her bottom in 2003. He allegedly said she had “a lovely seat” ahead of him running in the Teignbridge seat in Devon in 2005.
She told Sky News: “I can remember a really prominent man – at the time the Conservative candidate for Teignbridge in Devon – smacking me on the backside about as hard as he could and going, ‘oh, Romsey, you’ve got a lovely seat’.”
“I would have been in my early 30s, so old enough, old enough to call it out.”
“Stanley Johnson did that to me ahead of the ‘05 election, so it was Blackpool… 2003/4,” Nokes added.
“I didn’t do anything and I feel ashamed by that… now I probably would.”
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Johnson declined to comment about her allegation made to the news outlet, other than to say he has “no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all”.
Nokes’ claim prompted Ailbhe Rea, a journalist for the New Statesman magazine, to come forward with allegations that Johnson “groped” her at the 2019 Tory conference.
Responding to the allegation on Twitter, Rea said: “Stanley Johnson also groped me at a party at Conservative conference in 2019.
“I am grateful to Caroline Nokes for calling out something that none of us should have to put up with, not least from the Prime Minister’s father.”
An investigation will be carried out into allegations made against the Prime Minister’s father “if that’s the appropriate course of action”, a minister has said.
Asked about the allegations, Home Office minister Damian Hinds told Times Radio: “I don’t know obviously about the … I’ve heard this morning, as you have, or overnight, about this, about these allegations.
“I can say that, overall, in terms of the safety of women and girls, and being free from harassment wherever they are at home, at work, in the street, and online, this is an absolute top priority for the Government.
“But I’m not joining a link between that and at this because we don’t know, but if there is an investigation to be had, then, of course, that will happen.”
He added: “If there is an investigation to be had, if that is the appropriate course of action, then of course that will happen.”
Indy100 has reached out to Stanley Johnson’s rep for comment.