London
A young female parliamentary researcher has claimed that she was sexually assaulted by a serving Cabinet minister, Daily Mail has reported.
The woman, who worked at No 10 when the incident happened, alleged that she was groped by a Tory MP who has since been promoted to the Cabinet rank.
In an interview to the Sky News's ‘The Open Secret’ podcast, the woman, who has not been identified, said, “I was sexually assaulted by someone who's now a Cabinet minister, and I was in my early 20s and didn't really know how to deal with it.”
“I was super drunk. He's feeding me more wine and I'm already quite obviously tanked. After a while, I was like, ‘you know, what? Would you mind if I just went to bed?’ So, I went to bed,” she said.
“But obviously he didn't leave me alone. And then I woke up the next morning and I realised what had happened,” she added.
According to reports, the former House of Commons staff member later informed her colleagues and the MP she was working for at the time, who encouraged her to report it to the police. But she didn’t choose to press the matter further and also did not lodge a formal complaint to the Conservative Party.
“I was too scared to kickstart that process and risk it spiralling out of control,” she was quoted as saying.
But after the MP was elevated to the Cabinet rank, the woman decided to file a formal complaint.
“I heard that he was going to get a job in Downing Street. I raised it with a number of people. Nothing happened. So I then formally complained to the Cabinet Office. I just felt the responsibility to do it again, partly because the office he's going to be working in is full of women. And I just thought he'd do it again.”
However, she claimed that one of Boris Johnson's aides dismissed her complaint.
The Conservative party is said to have probed the matter, but it was not upheld as there was no footage or witnesses.
Meanwhile, a government spokesman told Daily Mail, “We take allegations of misconduct extremely seriously and there are robust procedures in place to raise concerns. All ministerial appointments also follow established processes.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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