Tragedy family ‘ brushed off by party’
DAMNING evidence of the Conservative party’s dismissive attitude to the suicide of an activist was revealed last night.
A cache of letters between Elliott Johnson’s grieving family and Conservative high command expose how they desperately tried to put a lid on the Tatler Tory scandal.
Even the Prime Minister, just three weeks ago, was assuring the family that under-fire chairman Lord Feldman would sort it all out with his internal inquiry.
But Lord Feldman’s internal inquiry was never going to uncover the full scale of the scandal, the private letters reveal.
The chairman admitted his probe was restricted to election aide Mark Clarke himself – not those said to have aided and abet- ted his behaviour. Mr Johnson, 21, took his own life on September 15 and left a suicide note blaming bullying by Clarke, who ran the Tories’ pre- election road trips. He strenuously denies all wrongdoing.
In an excoriating letter to Lord Feldman on October 22, the activist’s father Ray Johnson accused the party of ‘failing in its duty of care’ to young activists and using them as ‘fodder’ in the pursuit of electoral victory.
He said the ‘endemic bullying, harassment and intimidation’ appeared to be seen as ‘acceptable’ within the party.
He said only a full criminal investigation by police would suffice, and demanded Lord Feldman abandon his ‘too little, too late’ internal probe – which the Tories had announced would be led by Edward Legard, a judge and Old Etonian contemporary of the Prime Minister. They have since caved in to demands for a wider inquiry.
He called on the party to ‘reassess its internal processes robustly to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again’.
Lord Feldman replied to the letter the same day, but made it clear his internal inquiry was the way forward.
He insisted Mr Legard was ‘very much an appropriate person’ but admitted the probe was narrowly focused on just one person – Clarke. He wrote: ‘The purpose of this internal inquiry is to determine whether an indi- vidual’s membership should be suspended. It is not within our power to initiate or carry out a criminal investigation.’
He said nothing about potential lessons to be learnt by the party. And despite a mountain of complaints from at least 20 Tory activists of bullying and intimidation by Clarke, Lord Feldman claimed: ‘We do not tolerate this kind of behaviour in the party.’
In November, Mr Johnson wrote to Downing Street, and received a reply from David Cameron, who said the bullying complaints were being taken ‘incredibly seriously’ by Lord Feldman. But he too insisted the internal inquiry would be enough, saying Mr Legard was an experienced barrister.
Clarke strenuously denies all the allegations against him.