Aide ‘ blackmailed over relationship with married MP’
THE Tatler Tory allegedly blackmailed a political aide over her affair with a married MP, it emerged yesterday.
Mark Clarke was said to have threatened to expose the relationship unless the aide helped win him support for his campaign for selection to a safe seat.
The aide was also said to have been one of the few party activists still supporting Clarke in recent weeks as increasingly lurid sex, drugs and blackmail allegations – which he strenuously denies – were made against him.
She was also accused of briefing against whistleblowers who spoke out against Clarke. The woman, who the Mail is not naming, was an aide to Cabinet Minister Robert Halfon.
Mr Clarke had allegedly told the woman to win Mr Halfon’s backing for his bid to become a Tory MP or the affair would be revealed. The blackmail claim is said to have been reported to Tory chairman Lord Feldman by a former adviser to Cabinet Minister Liz Truss, who is not involved.
Mr Halfon confirmed to The Mail on Sunday that he backed Clarke to be put on the candidates lists.
But he said this was because he had been initially impressed by the senior election aide.
Clarke’s name was later removed from the list by a senior official at Conservative Campaign HQ.
Mr Halfon’s spokesman said: ‘Robert sent a reference about Clarke only because he thought he had done a good job on the road trips.
‘He was categorically not aware of any of the allegations made against him now. Had he been, he obviously would not have endorsed him in any way.’
Mr Halfon had earlier told Downing Street that he believed he had been the victim of a separate blackmail threat by Clarke over his own affair with another female Conservative official.
The MP, a 46-year-old minister without portfolio, said he felt ‘ashamed’ of having a six-month relationship behind his longterm partner’s back.
The affair was with PR executive Alexandra Paterson, 30, who is chairman of the Conservative Party’s youth wing and met Mr Halfon through party campaign events last year.
Mr Halfon, known as a consumer champion, admitted his infidelity to Downing Street after claiming Clarke tried to get film of him leaving a London club with Miss Paterson.
The Daily Mail revealed this month that Clarke had allegedly compiled dossiers on four Tory MPs after encouraging young activists to sleep with them. He was said to have been determined to secure a top political position by keeping ‘dirt’ on everybody to use as leverage in the future, a party campaigner alleged.
The whistleblower, who reported her concerns to Lord Feldman earlier this month, claimed Mr Clarke used the promise of career advancement to ‘pimp out’ young female and male activists to MPs.
Last night the married MP who allegedly had the affair threatened legal action if he was named. His alleged mistress could not be contacted for comment. Clarke earned his nickname after the magazine singled him out as a future Tory minister.
‘Keeping dirt on everybody’