A TV producer is the latest woman to publicly share her experience of being sexually harassed by a government official. Daisy Goodwin, who created the hit ITV show Victoria, said a man put his hand on her breast during a meeting at 10 Downing Street.
The unnamed government official had invited her into an office to discuss a proposed TV show during David Cameron's time as prime minister, she wrote in the Radio Times. Goodwin said she was "cross" about the incident but didn't report it, adding that the ongoing stream of sexual harassment allegations against men in Westminster and the media had made her question whether she should have been more vocal.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
During their meeting, the man told Goodwin her sunglasses "made [her] look like a Bond Girl" before the incident took place. “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?’ He dropped his hand and laughed nervously," she wrote, adding that she left Downing Street feeling furious, in a state of "high dudgeon".
"I wasn't traumatised, I was cross. But by the next day it had become an anecdote, The Day I Was Groped In Number 10," she continued. “It didn’t occur to me to report the incident, I was fine, after all, and who on earth would I report it to?”
However, Goodwin said she would potentially have reacted differently, given the recent scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein and several politicians. "Now, in the light of all the really shocking stories that have come out about abusive behaviour by men in power from Hollywood to Westminster, I wonder if my Keep Calm and Carry on philosophy, inherited from my parents, was correct? The answer is, I am not sure."
Downing Street said it took Goodwin's allegations "very seriously" and that it "would look into any formal complaint, should one be made."
Meanwhile, the Westminster sexual harassment scandal rumbles on. Alleged victims of harassment or assault by Conservative MPs have criticised the party for failing to promise to safeguard their identities or reveal who will be on the disciplinary panel that will hear their cases.