An undercover investigation by two journalists from The Financial Times has revealed how women employed as hostesses were propositioned and groped by wealthy men at the black-tie event.
According to BBC Newsnight, Mr Zahawi is understood to have left early because it was ‘a bizarre and uncomfortable’ event. He has attended the dinner in previous years before 2010 when he was elected an MP and said that it was a completely different event then.
The FT said that the official purpose of the secretive annual Presidents Club Charity Dinner is to raise money for worthy causes such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, the world-renowned children’s hospital in London.
The event held last Thursday (18 January) included an auction for lunch with Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary, and afternoon tea with Bank of England governor Mark Carney.
It was attended by 360 figures from British business, politics and finance, and the entertainment included 130 specially hired hostesses. It is said to have raised £2m for charity.
All of the women were told to wear skimpy black outfits with matching underwear and high heels. At an after-party many hostesses — some of them students earning extra money — were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned, the FT reported.
It is understood that Mr Zahawi was invited to attend by David Meller from the luxury good specialist Meller Group, who also sits on the board of the DfE and the Mayor’s Fund for London. Mr Mellor is joint chairman of the Presidents Club.
Mr Meller has today resigned from the DfE board and as chair of Apprenticeship Delivery Board.
Labour MP Jess Philips tabled an urgent question (UQ) in the House of Commons today.
During the UQ Labour’s Sarah Jones said, ‘If it transpires that the minister did not report his concerns and that he was there on previous occasions it is absolutely surely obvious that he needs to resign - our women are too important, our young girls are too important to get this kind of message from our leaders and to think that it’s acceptable.’
Anne Milton, the education minister responding to the UQ, said Mr Zahawi had 'found the event extremely uncomfortable’ and had left early. She said, ‘I have spoken to my fellow minister in the department, he didn’t stay at the event long and I know that he found the event extremely uncomfortable. He left and he was truly shocked by the reports that have emerged.’
When it was put to her that Mr Zahawi had not reported what went on, Ms Milton said that he had reported it to her this morning (i.e after the FT story was published.)
Mr Zahawi was not in the House of Commons for the Urgent Question but posted the following on Twitter:
Ms Milton said that although lunch with Boris Johnson was one of the lots in the charity auction, he did not know about that.
Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, responding to the resignation of Mr Meller from the DfE, said, ‘It is right that David Meller has now resigned but there are still serious questions for the education secretary to answer over this scandal. The minister for children attended this event himself and we have yet to hear a full and clear account of his actions.
‘The Department for Education is responsible for protecting children from exploitation and tackling sexual harassment in our schools, yet in the last fortnight alone we have seen two ministerial appointments forced to resign after falling far short of the standards we should expect. It is about time they started leading by example.’
Great Ormond Street Hospital received £530,000 between 2009 and 2016 from the Presidents Club. The hospital said it was 'shocked' at the report and would be sending the money back and would not be accepting future donations.
The Evelina London Children's Hospital had been pledged £650,000 in funding by the Presidents Club. It also said it would be returning previous donations and would not accept any more funding from it.
