Suspended Tory MP: It’s an injustice I haven’t been told what I’m accused of

A TORY MP suspended from the party and reported to the police last night claimed he was the victim of a ‘denial of justice’.

Charlie Elphicke said he still did not know what he is accused of and that the process being followed by the party was ‘fundamentally wrong’.

The Dover and Deal MP had the Tory whip withdrawn on Friday, at the height of the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, after party chiefs said serious allegations had been made against him.

In an outspoken attack last night, he claims the media were tipped off about the action before he was told. Mr Elphicke told his local Conservative association how he received a call from a journalist at 9pm on Friday who had heard he would be losing the whip in time for the 10 o‘clock news and wanted to know why. He said: ‘I said I had absolutely no idea. Minutes later I received a call from the Chief Whip telling me serious allegations had been made against me earlier that week and that these had been passed to the police.

‘I asked what the allegations were and he would not tell me. He only said that he and the Prime Minister had decided the whip should be suspended from me. As we spoke, the news spread across the national media.’ Mr Elphicke added that the ‘whole area of reporting allegations is a mess’ and feels his treatment undermined British values of ‘equality of the law’ and the ‘presumption of innocence’ by prejudicing any hearing against him. He said: ‘I have every sympathy with people who have been harassed or victimised and feel they have nowhere to turn. That is a denial of justice.

‘It is also a denial of justice when people who have had allegations made against them, lose their job or their party whip without knowing what those allegations are.’

Last night Downing Street would not comment on Mr Elphicke’s claims.