A former adviser to David Cameron has been accused of pressuring a young researcher to go on a date with a wealthy businessman who was ‘older than her father’.
Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski is said to have approached the woman in 2013 on behalf of a contact from overseas who had seen her in Parliament.
The woman – who was working for deputy speaker Eleanor Laing at the time – is said to have been ‘horrified’ and told Kawczynski, 45, that the businessman was ‘older than her father’.
The Shrewsbury MP then boasted of his contact’s wealth and urged the researcher to go for a coffee with him, it has been claimed.
Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski is said to have approached the woman in 2013 on behalf of a contact from overseas who had seen her in Parliament. He is pictured outside 10 Downing Street with then-Prime Minister David Cameron
A source close to the woman said Kawczynski’s alleged behaviour had been ‘sleazy in the extreme’.
He is the latest politician to be named in the sleaze scandal that is sweeping across Westminster.
An intermediary is said to have approached her multiple times before the politician himself asked her to go on a date with the man suggesting it ‘might help with a deal’, Channel 4 News reports.
Fellow Tory MP Laing, the woman’s boss, then confronted Kawczynski in the House of Commons divison lobby and angrily raised her voice.
But she did not raise a formal complaint because she considered the matter dealt with.
She told Channel 4 News in a statement: ‘I was very angry at this inappropriate behaviour and I strongly reprimanded my colleague in front of several witnesses.
‘I feel very strongly that women of my generation have got to stand up for the younger generation of women because that’s how we will get cultural change.
‘My number one concern is to protect the identity of this young researcher. She deserves privacy, just like any other victim.’
Kawczynski – who advised then-Prime Minister David Cameron on Eastern Europe – is understood to have admitted that he asked the woman to have coffee with his contact.
But he strongly denied that a business deal was involved and denies sending an intermediary to approach her in Parliament.