By Eric King-
Top television presenter, Daisy Goodwin- the creator of the ITV drama Victoria- has stirred the pot of sexual harassment claims further.
Goodwin claims to have been groped by an official in David Cameron’s government while visiting 10 Downing Street.
The writer and TV producer, said the official put his hand on her breast during a meeting in Downing Street.
Goodwin disappointingly declined to name the official but said he was a few years younger than her. It is understood he was an official during Cameron’s tenure in government – which lasted from 2010 to 2016.
The revelations from the 55 year old adds to the long list of allegations against MP’s as investigations continue into alleged inappropriate conduct by Damian Green, the first secretary of state, and Mark Garnier, the international trade minister.
Goodwin revealed the incident in an article for the Radio Times , as she included an unconfirmed allegation against an unnamed guard when she was 15. The tv presenter claims a guard on a train in London put his hands between her legs, but doesn’t explain why she did not report the incident to police at the time. The Downing Street incident occurred after Goodwin met the official at a dinner and he followed up with an email to invite her to a meeting to discuss an idea for a television programme.
“The official, who was a few years younger than me, showed me into a room dominated by a portrait of Mrs T and we sat at a table carved, he told me, from one piece of wood. Then to my surprise he put his feet on my chair (we were sitting side by side) and said that my sunglasses made me look like a Bond girl,”
Goodwin wrote in the Radio Times. Elaborating on the incident against the unnamed Westminster official, Goodwin explained:
“I attempted to turn the conversation to turning exports into unmissable TV. At the end of the meeting we both stood up and the official, to my astonishment, put his hand on my breast. I looked at the hand and then in my best Lady Bracknell voice said, ‘Are you actually touching my breast?’”
Goodwin said that he then dropped his hand and “laughed nervously” and she left “in what can only be called high dudgeon”.
She added:
“I wasn’t traumatised, I was cross, but by the next day it had become an anecdote, The Day I Was Groped in No 10 – an account of male delusion.
“It didn’t occur to me to report the incident, I was fine, after all, and who on earth would I report it to? I had learnt my lesson only too well. These things did happen and I had indeed learnt how to deal with them.” Her excuse for not reporting it is not acceptable, she was a grown adult and could have reported it. How could it not occur to her to report it?
Goodwin said that following the wave of stories about abuse by “men in power” that have emerged from Hollywood and Westminster she has reconsidered whether the incident should have been reported.
“The answer is, I am not sure,” she said “I think humiliating the official was probably the appropriate punishment, but suppose he tried it on with someone less able to defend themselves?
“All I do know is that in writing Victoria, I have created a heroine who is the ultimate retort to the Harvey Weinsteins and lecherous officials of this world, a woman who could never be humiliated by a powerful man.”
Goodwin decision not to name the man is understandable because there is no proof either way, especially after years has passed. However, if she were very smart she could have reprimanded him in an email shortly after the event but shrugged it off so as not to arouse his suspicion that she could take it further. He may have fallen for the trap, especially if she told him off mildly, but made him feel safe. Her complaint will heighten the feeling of disgust against Mp’s, the only problem being that there is no evidence whatsoever that she didn’t make it up. It is simply poor that she left it this late to raise the issue.