British PM on defensive again over groping claim
Britain’s Boris Johnson is known for his colourful love life but the accusation he grabbed a young woman’s thigh when he was a magazine editor risks a scandal as he seeks to unite his party over Brexit.
The prime minister, who is attending his Conservative party’s conference in Manchester, northwest England, is accused of giving a female journalist’s leg “a squeeze” while at a private lunch 20 years ago.
Johnson never comments on his personal life but his spokesman issued a clear denial -- an acknowledgement that the claim is more serious than gossip about his affairs.
It follows accusations that Johnson gave special access to a US businesswoman with whom he is alleged to have had a relationship when he was mayor of London.
He denies any impropriety, but it is yet another headache after his defeats in parliament and the courts over his pledge to leave the EU on October 31, come what may.
In an article published in The Sunday Times, journalist Charlotte Edwardes described a boozy lunch in the offices of The Spectator magazine around two decades ago, when Johnson was editor.
She was sitting next to him and wrote that “under the table I feel Johnson’s hand on my thigh. He gives it a squeeze”.
She said a woman she spoke with after the dinner, who was sitting on Johnson’s other side, said the same thing happened to her.
Johnson was married at the time to his second wife. They are now divorced and he currently lives with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds.
Downing Street said Edwardes’ claim was “untrue”, and the prime minister himself denied it in a television interview, while refusing to comment further.
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