A senior Conservative MP has accused Boris Johnson’s 81-year-old father Stanley Johnson of ‘smacking her on the backside’ – prompting a young journalist to claim she had also been groped by him.
Former minister Caroline Nokes, 49, said the elder Mr Johnson told her she has ‘a lovely seat’ during the incident which allegedly took place at the Tory Party conference in Blackpool in 2003 when she was in her early 30s.
The chairman of the Women and Equalities committee was at the time a prospective parliamentary candidate for Romsey and Southampton North, and made the allegation during a panel discussion on Sky News.
She said: ‘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’.’
Mrs Nokes then said the candidate was Mr Johnson Sr, 81, who later failed to get elected. She added: ‘I would have been in my early 30s, so old enough to call it out. I now regard it as a duty… to call out wherever you see it.’
Responding to the allegation, Mr Johnson Sr said: ‘I have no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all – but there you go. And no reply… good luck and thanks.’
But now another woman has claimed she was also inappropriately touched by Mr Johnson Sr. New Statesman journalist Ailbhe 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.’
Ms Rea, who is aged in her mid-20s and grew up Belfast, graduated from Oxford University in 2017 and has worked for the New Statesman as a political correspondent since July 2019. (DailyMail)