LUKE Foley, the man who was on track to be the next premier of New South Wales, has sensationally quit after damning allegations of inappropriate conduct were levelled against him.

The Labor leader stood down on Thursday afternoon several hours after Ashleigh Raper, the ABC’s former state political reporter, accused Mr Foley of putting his hand in her underpants.

In a statement issued by the public broadcaster on her behalf, Ms Raper alleged the incident took place after an official Christmas function in 2016, at a bar in Sydney’s Martin Place.

The journalist also revealed Mr Foley had telephoned her twice in the past week — once to say he intended to resign, and then again to say he was staying on.

In a brief statement to media, Mr Foley insisted the allegations were “false” and he intended to begin defamation proceedings.

“However, I can’t fight to clear my name and fight an election at the same time. It’s just not possible to do both,” Mr Foley said.

“Therefore, I’m resigning the leadership of the Labor Party effective today. This will enable a new leader to give his or her full attention to the task of defeating the Liberal-National Government.”

Mr Foley will now move to the backbench and said he intends to remain as the member for Auburn.

After the Christmas party at Parliament House two years ago, which was attended by members of the press gallery as well as politicians and their staffers, a group continued on to a bar in Martin Place, Ms Raper said.

“Later in the evening, Luke Foley approached a group of people, including me, to say goodnight,” Ms Raper alleges.

“He stood next to me. He put his hand through a gap in the back of my dress and inside my underpants. He rested his hand on my buttocks. I completely froze.”

READ MORE: Ashleigh Raper’s full statement about alleged incident

Ms Raper said the alleged incident was witnessed by Sean Nicholls, who was the Sydney Morning Herald’s state political editor at the time, and works at the ABC as a reporter for Four Corners.

The alleged incident was first aired in parliament last month by Liberal MP David Elliott — a political tactic that Ms Raper slammed.

“The matter then became a state and federal political issue and resulted in intense media attention,” she said. “This occurred without my involvement or consent.”

In the chamber in October, during a fiery exchange, Mr Elliott said: “I’ve never had a little too much to drink at a party and harassed an ABC journalist, I’ve never done that.”

A spokesperson for Mr Elliott today said he did not intend to comment, including about Ms Raper’s upset about and criticism of his conduct.

Despite the claim becoming public, Mr Foley’s spokesman strongly denied the allegation, which Mr Foley repeated today.

“The first thing I’d like to say is that the allegations against me today, made public by the ABC, are false. I’ve retained solicitors and senior counsel to advise on the immediate commencement of defamation proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.”

A spokesperson for the public broadcaster said it stood by the statement by Ms Raper and had no further comment.

A senior Labor source earlier told news.com.au earlier that his position was untenable and “everyone wants (Mr Foley) to go”.

Michael Daley was firming as favourite to take Mr Foley’s place as leader, the source said, with the “left (faction) expected to decide (the position of) deputy.”

Ms Raper claims Mr Foley phoned her last Sunday to apologise and said he intended to resign as Opposition Leader in the following few days.

“He told me that he had wanted to talk to me about that night on many occasions over the past two years because, while he was drunk and couldn’t remember all the details of the night, he knew he did something to offend me,” Ms Raper alleged.

“He apologised again and told me, ‘I’m not a philanderer, I’m not a groper, I’m just a drunk idiot’.”

But he called her again on Tuesday and backtracked, saying he would not quit after all.

“He repeated his apology and told me he owed me “a lot of contrition”. He informed me he’d received legal advice not to resign as Opposition Leader. He indicated he intended to follow that advice.”

ABC reporter issues statement on Foley allegations ABC reporter issues statement on Foley allegations

Ms Raper said she had reluctantly decided to make a statement now in order to set the record straight and to call out Mr Foley’s alleged behaviour.

“Second, situations like mine should not be discussed in parliament for the sake of political point scoring. And I want it to stop.”

New South Wales will go to an election on March 23 next year, and in recent opinion polls Labor had posted a commanding lead over Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s Liberal government.

If those trends continued, many pundits had tipped Mr Foley would almost certainty be the state’s next premier.

That will obviously not eventuate now, and the scandal’s impact on Labor’s electoral standing remains to be seen.