Tory Bullying - What Newsnight DIDN’T Say

Last night, BBC’s Newsnight featured an item on the Tory Party’s bullying scandal, and more particularly the problems facing the inquiry led by Clifford, Chance and set up by the party in the aftermath of Elliott Johnson’s death. It has been claimed that several potential witnesses have refused to testify because of the presence of one Rob Semple, who is considered by many to be far too close to Mark Clarke.

And Clarke, despite his denials, is at the centre of the scandal, after Johnson accused him of bullying, and many others then endorsed those claims. Semple has refused to recuse himself from the inquiry, and has also asserted that he and Clarke are no longer close. But then, the Sun’s alleged “Westminster Correspondent” Harry Cole also claimed to have fallen out with Clarke, with whom he had been very close friends, only for some items that must have come from Clarke’s personal correspondence to turn up in Cole’s Sun articles.

As Nic Conner, who featured in the Newsnight report, has said, “It does not matter if Rob Semple was or wasn't Mark Clarke's man in the Party Board, his presence will put off witnesses to come forward”. And what Newsnight did not cover was the question of potentially improper use of data - as Zelo Street regulars will recall, the access to Tory membership records was key to Grant “Spiv” Shapps’ plans last year (misuse of personal data is, it seems, outside the scope of the Clifford, Chance inquiry).

Had the Tories lost the General Election, and a leadership contest followed, Shapps would, it has been claimed, put himself forward. His access to all that membership data would enable him to post a good showing, even though he accepted he would not win. That would have enabled him to get his people into influential positions, perhaps get them selected as Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for 2020.

Those thus favoured, it was alleged, included Mark Clarke. And it seems the Tories’ problem with casual use of information is still around, as Eimhear MacFarlane has told: “I was a bit upset to get three separate emails last night where it was quite clear that my data had been harvested from one source (namely the Conservative Future membership database) and used by individuals for a purpose for which it was not intended”.

There’s more: “Two came from CF Executive members asking for me to support them in the CWF open primary. I’d already voted anyway. Another came from a London Mayoral candidate. Hello, I’m from Northern Ireland … You may be saying, ‘hang on, it’s only an email address’ but that’s not really the point. I willingly gave that email address over on the understanding that it would be used for the purpose I was handing it over for”.

Also missing from the Newsnight piece was the continuing investigation into the role of the Young Britons’ Foundation and its head man Donal Blaney in the bullying scandal, plus the fact that more than one Sunday title is still digging away at this angle. Zelo Street can reveal that Blaney has been claimed to have employed the services of another, rather more high-profile legal practice, to try and frighten off one of those papers.

Sadly, one paper that will not be deterred by such methods is still on the case, and should have more on the YBF’s role very soon. Some who would rather the story would go away are starting to realise that once the genie is out of the bottle, it won’t willingly return there.