BoJo’s Father Accused of ‘Groping' a Tory MP and Journalist at Conservative Party Conferences

Stanley Johnson, 81, is a former Conservative Party politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wight and Hampshire East from 1979 to 1984. The father of six children, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is also a former employee of the World Bank and the European Commission.

Two women have claimed that Stanley Johnson, father of the current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, inappropriately touched them at Conservative Party conferences, reported Sky News.

Tory MP Caroline Nokes, who has represented Romsey and Southampton North in the Commons since 2010, was cited as saying during a cross-party panel discussion hosted by the outlet:

“I’ve had male MPs stick their hands on my backside in Strangers’ Bar (in Parliament)… And I can remember a really prominent man smacking me on the backside about as hard as he could and going, ‘Oh, Romsey, you’ve got a lovely seat’. Stanley Johnson did that to me ahead of the ‘05 election, so it was Blackpool… 2003/4.

The former minister and chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee added:

“I didn’t do anything and I feel ashamed by that… now I probably would… I now regard it as a duty, an absolute duty, to call out wherever you see it. Be the noisy, aggravating, aggressive woman in the room because if I'm not prepared to do that, then my daughter won't be prepared to do that... you do get to a point where you go 'up with this, I will not put'."

According to Nokes, the incident occurred at the Conservative Party Conference before Stanley Johnson ran for the Teignbridge seat in Devon in the 2005 general election. Johnson lost that campaign, but served as a Conservative member of the European Parliament between 1979 and 1984.

When asked to comment on the claims by Nokes, Stanley Johnson responded by saying:

“I have no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all. But there you go … and no reply.”

However, the allegations made by the senior Tory MP prompted Ailbhe Rea, a journalist for the New Statesman magazine, to similarly accuse Stanley Johnson of having “groped” her at the 2019 Tory conference.

She went on Twitter to express gratitude to Caroline Nokes for “calling out something that none of us should have to put up with, not least from the Prime Minister’s father”.

Stanley Johnson also groped me at a party at Conservative conference in 2019.

I am grateful to Caroline Nokes for calling out something that none of us should have to put up with, not least from the Prime Minister's father. https://t.co/Uf6lEdatux

— Ailbhe Rea (@PronouncedAlva) November 15, 2021

Carline Noke’s mention of having experienced inappropriate touching by the Prime Minister’s father was made at a panel discussion between four prominent female MPs about how to confront violence against women in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.

People observe a memorial site at the Clapham Common Bandstand, following the kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, Britain, March 21, 2021

© REUTERS / HENRY NICHOLLS

The 33-year-old marketing executive was kidnapped in South London, England, on 3 March 2021, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area. Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens falsely arrested her, claiming she had breached COVID-19 regulations, then drove her to near Dover where he raped and strangled her, later disposing of her body in a pond.

The discussion, which also featured Labour MPs Jess Phillips and Rosena Allin-Khan, and Conservative MP Fay Jones, was aimed at probing what should be done by legislators address the issue of violence against women.