And then he wrote a sketch about them, Daily Mail columnist claims

Daily Mail writer Sarah Vine claims Harry Enfield fondled her breasts at a Downing Street party – then wrote a sketch about it.

The columnist came forward with her story in today’s paper after TV producer Daisy Goodwin told how she was groped by Daniel Korski, now a Tory Mayor of London hopeful, when he was a former special adviser to David Cameron. 

Korsi denies the incident, but today Vine – the ex-wife of Leveliing-Up Minister Michael Gove – says Enfield did a similar thing to her at a party early in Cameron's premiership  – ‘probably late 2010’. 

She wrote: ‘I was standing around, as you do, glass in hand, chatting to various people, when Harry Enfield, the comedian, joined the conversation. I remember it was very loud, and everyone was a bit hyper, all over-excited about being there. Enfield, I think, was slightly in his cups.

‘I can't remember what I was wearing but it must have been some kind of party dress because at one point my gay friend commented on it and said — in a fruity Oscar Wilde sort of voice — that it made my breasts look "rather magnificent".

‘Everyone laughed — including Enfield, who concurred. He then said something along the lines of "do you mind if I have a go?" before reaching out, grabbing them in both hands and sort of jiggling them around with a vigorous enthusiasm that, I must confess, rather took me and everyone else by surprise.

‘Afterwards, I really wasn't sure what to make of it. I wasn't particularly upset — after all, he did it in full view of everyone, so it wasn't threatening or sinister. But it did rather take the wind out of my sails. In the end, I decided to file it under "someone having a bit of fun at my expense".’

However in 2012 she featured in one of the recurring sketches in which Enfield and Paul Whitehouse played two posh old duffers obsessed with whether public figures are gay.

The Harry & Paul skit centred on  Gove, with Enfield’s character saying:  I met his wife once, she's a fine woman. I wanted to grope her breasts.'

'Did you ask her why she married a queer?' says Whitehouse.

'No, I wanted to grope her breasts,' says Enfield. 'Have you seen his wife?'

‘No,' says Whitehouse.

'You'd like to grope her breasts, you really would,' says Enfield, 

‘Well I should put him down as a queer,’ declares Whitehouse as if recording a solemn verdict, ‘And add an asterisk here saying "wife's breasts gropeable".’

Vine said today: ‘Maybe that was Enfield's way of apologising. Or at least acknowledging his behaviour.’

But she does not appear to hold the incident against the comedian, too much, adding: ‘My point is: life is a rich tapestry, and not all the stitches are even. We do and say things that later, with hindsight, seem more than a shade inappropriate. But does that make us bad people? Not necessarily. Ten years is a long time. People grow and change.’

Chortle has approached Enfield’s agent for comment.

Published: 28 Jun 2023