Tory mayoral hopeful for London, Daniel Korski accused of sexual assault on TV producer in a meeting at Number 10 Downing Street

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Tory mayoral hopeful for London, Daniel Korski accused of sexual assault on TV producer in a meeting at Number 10 Downing Street

Mr Korski worked as a journalist earlier in his career. (Photo credit: The Guardian)

A leading leading Tory candidate for London Mayor has been accused of sexually assaulting a TV producer in Downing Street a decade ago.

Rishi Sunak came into power premising “accountability”. Number10 have said they will not be investigating or asking Mr Korski to stand aside.

Mr Korski, allegedly groped Daisy Goodwin, who created ITV drama Victoria.

Ms Goodwin accused Mr Korski of touching her breast after a meeting to discuss a potential TV show about trade.

Mr Korski was a special adviser to David Cameron.

She said she was naming him now because of his candidacy to become London’s mayor.

“It  is not fair on the great majority of men who treat women decently to allow a man who clearly has a problem with impulse control to reach a position of power,” she said.

Writing in The Times, Ms Goodwin urged others who may have “had similar experiences” with Mr Korski to come forward.

She added: “I write not out of revenge but to send out a signal to him, and to all men who mistreat women. Don’t think that you will get away with it.”

Ms Goodwin, also a bestselling author, said that revelations about disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and the subsequent #MeToo movement which followed, made her realise that “ignoring this sort of behaviour was actually enabling men to carry on with this kind of unsavoury treatment of women”.

In the article, Ms Goodwin said she met Mr Korski at a party and organised a meeting to discuss a potential show about small and medium-sized businesses exporting globally.

Mr Korski with his wife Fiona Mcilwham.

She said she waited for an hour for the meeting

When Mr Korski eventually “bounced in”, the pair sat in the building’s Thatcher drawing room.

Ms Goodwin described how Mr Korski, 15 years her junior, made an “awkwardly flirtatious” comment about her sunglasses, before resting his feet on the edge of her chair and “leaning back so that I could get a clear view of his crotch”.

The meeting was subsequently “not particularly fruitful”.

As the pair stood up at the end of the meeting, Ms Goodwin said Mr Korski stepped toward her 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,” she said.

Mr Korski, the 46-year-old son of Polish refugees, is one of three Conservative candidates on a shortlist to challenge Sadiq Khan in next year’s race.

London Assembly Member (AM) Susan Hall and barrister Mozammel Hossain KC are also competing for the nomination.

Mr Korski is seen as a frontrunner after MP Paul Scully failed to make it on to the Conservative shortlist.

But the allegations represent a blow to his campaign and raise fresh questions about Mr Scully’s failure to make the shortlist.

He is running on a platform of implementing a new tourist tax to pay for more police, including setting up a minor crimes constabulary to work closely with local communities, and building denser housing in central London.

His campaign has been endorsed by levelling up secretary Michael Gove and senior Tories Robert Buckland and Nadhim Zahawi.

Zahawi was mired in a tax avoidance scandal with HMRC few months ago, that led to his sacking from the Sunak cabinet.

Tory members will be able to vote for their preferred candidate between July 4-18, and the winner is expected to be announced on July 19.

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