TV producer Daisy Goodwin has submitted a formal complaint against Daniel Korski, after accusing the former Downing Street aide and Conservative mayoral candidate hopeful of groping her a decade ago.
Mr Korski has said it is “categorically” untrue that he groped Ms Goodwin and has pledged to stay in the race to become the Conservative candidate for London mayor.
It comes after Ms Goodwin used articles in The Times and Daily Mail to identify the former special adviser.
A number of Tory MP backers of Mr Korski have now paused support for his campaign in the wake of the allegation.
Ms Goodwin appeared to submit a formal complaint late on Tuesday, posting a screengrab to Instagram of an email receipt from the Cabinet Office with the subject line: “Formal complaint about Daniel Korski Urgent”.
The post included the caption: “who is running the country?”
The Times also reported that Ms Goodwin had called the Cabinet Office on Tuesday to make a complaint, alongside sending an email.
“Trying to complain to the Cabinet Office is harder than getting a BT engineer to your home in the same lunar month,” she told the paper.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she did not rule out making a complaint to Conservative party headquarters.
She said: “I assume that because this happened in Downing Street that I should complain to them, but I’m happy to complain to the Conservative Party as well.”
The Cabinet Office declined on Wednesday to confirm whether a formal complaint had been made.
Children and families minister Claire Coutinho said she had paused her support for Mr Korski and said that any complaint should be investigated “swiftly”.
“At the same time, this is an allegation. He’s roundly denied it,” she told Sky News.
“If there is a complaint in the system, it needs to be followed up swiftly so we can find the facts and see what’s happened, but I do think it’s a very serious and concerning allegation.”
Harrow MP Robert Halfon had already paused his backing for the mayoral hopeful in the wake of the allegation, according to reports.
Mr Korski used an interview with TalkTV to say that he had met with Ms Goodwin, but he denied that anything improper had occurred.
“I didn’t do what’s been alleged. I absolutely didn’t do that. Ten years ago, when it happened, nothing was said to me. Seven years ago, when this first came out, nobody alleged anything to me.
“I just didn’t do what’s being alleged,” he said on Tuesday.
“I’ve had countless meetings in Number 10, have had thousands of meetings since then in my business career, I treat everybody with the utmost respect, I work hard to create an empowering and respectful environment, and I sit appropriately in chairs, and I try to treat everybody with respect in order to get the best out of a professional situation.
“I don’t know how she could have come away with that perception.
“I certainly didn’t leave the meeting feeling that I had done anything wrong, and subsequently even wrote to her, congratulating her on some of her professional success. But I don’t really know why she felt the way she did.”
In the interview he acknowledged that the allegation had been raised as part of the process for choosing the Conservatives’ candidate to become London mayor.
“During the process, I was asked about if there were any outstanding issues the party may be aware of. I said to the party, seven years ago there was a story. I was never named in the story. As far as I know, there was no investigation. But I did mention this to the party.”
Asked by TalkTV if he had always been faithful to his wife, he said: “Look, I mean, I have a fantastic marriage to my wife. And I’m really, you know, excited that we’ve built a fantastic family together. I don’t think it would be appropriate to talk about anything else.
“I have a loving relationship with my wife. We’ve been together for 22 years. We met originally in Bosnia after the war. And, you know, I’m thrilled to to build a life and a family with her.”
The Conservative Party said on Tuesday that it was not investigating the claim and Downing Street said No 10 was a safe environment for women.
Downing Street on Tuesday refused to be drawn on the individual case or whether there would be a Cabinet Office investigation into Mr Korski who, at the time of the allegation, was a special adviser to then-prime minister David Cameron.
A Tory spokesman said: “The Conservative Party has an established code of conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence.
“The party considers all complaints made under the code of conduct but does not conduct investigations where the party would not be considered to have primary jurisdiction over another authority.”
