Labour have called for the police to investigate claims that Boris Johnson’s father ‘smacked a female politician on the backside.’

Stanley Johnson, 81, has been accused of inappropriately touching Caroline Noakes at the Conservative Party conference in 2003.

It has also separately been alleged that he ‘groped’ a journalist, Ailbhe Rea, at the same event 16 years later – in 2019.

Sir Keir Starmer praised the women for speaking out and said the accusations warranted an investigation ‘by the Conservative Party or by the criminal authorities.’

Mr Johnson has declined to comment other than to say he has ‘no recollection’ of either event.

The Conservative Party has yet to say whether it will investigate despite the alleged incidents happening at an official event.

Ms Nokes, chair of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, told Sky News: ‘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”.’

She said it happened when she was preparing to campaign to contest the Hampshire constituency of Romsey during the 2005 election, during which Mr Johnson ran for Teignbridge, in Devon.

Cabinet minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she ‘would have probably slapped’ Mr Johnson if he had inappropriately touched her in the way that has been alleged.

The International Trade Secretary praised Ms Nokes for speaking out, adding that women had for far too long had to deal with ‘casual sexism, the wandering hand’.

Asked if Mr Johnson will be investigated, Ms Trevelyan told Sky News: ‘I will leave Caroline to work with the party on that but we have a robust system in place and I hope very much she’ll be able to work that through with the party machine.

‘But more widely this is something that all of us who are women not only in political life but in all sorts of life have for far too long have had to tolerate the sort of casual sexism, the wandering hand, that is completely unacceptable.’

And asked what she would have done in response to the alleged touching, she said: ‘At the time, I would have probably slapped him, which arguably isn’t a better response either but it would’ve been an instinctive response from me and I think Caroline would’ve shown great personal restraint if she quietly moved away.’

Meanwhile, the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), a Tory forum for which Mr Johnson has acted as an international ambassador, said it was looking at the claims about his conduct.

‘We take all allegations of inappropriate behaviour very seriously,’ a statement from the group said.

‘We have clear internal processes for managing allegations of this nature and these are currently being followed. The alleged behaviour is not acceptable to CEN.’

Stanley Johnson lost the campaign to become an MP in 2005 but had served as a Conservative MEP between 1979 and 1984.

He told the Sun: ‘I have no recollection of Caroline Nokes, and no idea what she was talking about.

‘Had I been asked about the allegation made by the journalist of the New Statesman, I would have said the same thing.’

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