Tory Bullying - Independent Inquiry Needed

The Twitter feed of Mark Clarke, who is at the centre of bullying allegations made in the aftermath of Elliott Johnson’s death, tells “Business and Politics. Founder and Director, Roadtrip2020, Roadtrip2015 & Battlebus2015. Father of two lovely girls”. How hollow the “happy family man” schtick must be looking after Simon Walters’ exposé in the Mail On Sunday - the story that should have been on the front page.

All those young activists. Entrusted to Mark Clarke's care

And how disturbing that backdrop on Clarke’s Twitter feed looks now: all those apparently happy and smiling Roadtrip2015 supporters, many of them - unusually for the Tories - young, some as young as 16, and all entrusted to the tender care of someone who many in the party knew was a womaniser. Walters has three statements from young women, one of whom was just 17 when Clarke tried it on with her.

He kept a mistress - India Brummitt, no less, who features with him in so many of those photos. He liked rough sex, and “told friends he once accidentally dislocated the jaw of one of his lovers when he slapped her during a consensual sex session, requiring her to seek hospital treatment in the early hours. He said they told doctors it was a ‘netball injury’”. And he boasted of his conquest technique.

Behold the happy family man. Allegedly

This was, he told, “his ‘IIP’ method of making women sleep with him – Isolate, Inebriate, Penetrate”. This was the person - one hates to call Clarke a man - whom Grant Shapps, who was the party’s co-chairman at the time, entrusted with the safety of all those young activists. A vicious creep. A bully. A thug. And this is the party whose supporters whinge long and loud about the behaviour of other parties’ followers.

How predictable it is that some of the rats are now deserting the sinking ship: André Walker has turned on Clarke, calling him “a nasty piece of work”. That’s a little rich coming from the creep who was caught plotting a smear campaign against an elected official - and had to resign his job because of it. And how predictable that many of Clarke’s pals are keeping very quiet indeed. But it is already too late.

Left to right: Mark Clarke, his mistress India Brummitt, Grant "Spiv" Shapps", who was the responsible party co-chairman, and Emma Pidding, who, in the words of Simon Walters, "has questions to answer"

This comes clear with one look at the Roadtrip2015 publicity shot. Who is there, centre stage, implicitly endorsing the set-up, taking the plaudits alongside “Spiv” Shapps? That would be Young Dave. The Prime Minister. All those vulnerable young people entrusted to a predatory bully, and rubber-stamping the whole operation is Cameron himself. That shot alone shows why a proper Inquiry into this sordid business is needed, and now.

Bullying is endemic in the Tory Party. An internal Inquiry is therefore fatally compromised before it even begins. If Mark Clarke is expelled, it will change nothing: he was protected and encouraged by others. If David Cameron is sincere, he will announce an independent Inquiry and commit himself and the rest of the party to abide by its findings. To do otherwise will commit only to sinking deeper into the mire.

The bullying, smearing, assaults, threats and deception have to stop. Your call, Dave. And you need to make that call before the next revelations are upon you.