A Tory MP has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault at London’s Groucho Club.
Patrick Spencer, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, allegedly cupped the breasts of two women over their clothes at the famous private members’ club on an evening in August 2023.
He has been suspended from the Conservative Party and had the whip withdrawn over the charges.
When the charges were made public last month, Mr Spencer “categorically denied” the allegations against him and vowed to defend them “robustly” in court.
Mr Spencer is the son of Michael Spencer, a billionaire Conservative peer and founder of finance firm NEX Group.
Lord Spencer was Tory treasurer between 2006 and 2007, having donated millions of pounds to the party, and was awarded a peerage by Boris Johnson in 2020.
Mr Spencer was first elected to parliament last year, with a majority of 4,290. Before entering parliament, he worked in finance for IPGL, a private equity firm chaired by his father.
He later took a job at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, founded by the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, and then became a senior adviser at the Department for Education.
He made his maiden speech in the Commons in July last year during a debate on the MPs’ code of conduct relating to second jobs, during which he said the “most important thing to the people across my constituency” was “restoring a sense of moral probity and public spiritedness to our political system”.
He had been told by Tory whips to stay away from the parliamentary estate while inquiries were ongoing.
The 37-year-old, from Suffolk, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he confirmed his name and date of birth before pleading not guilty to the offences.
Prosecutor Polly Dyer told the court that the first complainant “felt Mr Spencer put his arms under her arms” before he “cupped her breasts over the clothing”.
Of the second complainant, the prosecutor alleged “he moved behind her and also cupped her breasts with his hands over clothing”.
Ms Dyer added that neither woman consented to the alleged touching.
He is due to appear at Southwark Crown Court on 14 July.
