Step into ‘Tatler Tory’ probe, dead activist’s father urges Cameron

Expelled: former Tory candidate Mark Clarke
Joseph Watts27 November 2015

The father of the Tory activist believed to have killed himself after claiming he was bullied by party colleagues today demanded that David Cameron “take control” of an investigation into the scandal.

Ray Johnson said he feared the internal investigation into the so-called “Tatler Tory” affair was going to be a “whitewash” and called on the Prime Minister to step in and “bang a few heads together”. Mr Johnson told the Standard it would be unacceptable for the Tories to “hunker down behind the barricade”.

His intervention comes amid a growing Tory row over who gave a key election role to Mark Clarke, who is now at the centre of a series of lurid sex, bullying, harassment and blackmail allegations. He strongly denies them all.

Mr Johnson’s son Elliott, 21, who died in September, had reportedly complained to the party that he was being threatened by Mr Clarke, who ran an operation bussing young Tory volunteers around the country to help in marginal seats in the general election campaign.

Since Elliott’s death the Tories have opened an internal investigation headed by former party candidate Edward Legard QC, but Mr Johnson called for them to go further. He said: “David Cameron has to take control. I think he has to accept Conservative headquarters is failing and it’s time he stepped in and banged a few heads together.”

Mr Clarke stood as Tory parliamentary candidate for Tooting in 2010 but lost to Labour’s Sadiq Khan. He was once tipped for a Cabinet job by Tatler magazine, but failed to make the candidates’ list for 2015. But the party did agree to work with his Road Trip campaign operation, which saw him mobilise young volunteers.

Since the scandal broke, Mr Clarke has been expelled from the Conservative party and banned for life. A row has now broken out centring on who gave him the election campaign role.

Former Tory chairman Grant Shapps has been drawn into the furore and current Conservative chairman Lord Feldman says he was “wholly unaware” of any claims of bullying by Mr Clarke before August.

Mr Johnson said the party should “call a halt to their attempts to rely on their own investigation and call in independent investigators. It has to be done impartially — a judge or the police should be over- seeing it, somebody not tainted with the Conservative brand.”

A party spokesman said it would be “inappropriate” to comment while its investigation is still going on.

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