Quit or you will be axed, Tory MP in groping claim told by officials
THE Tory MP at the centre of groping allegations from a rival politician was told he would be axed by his party if he refused to quit, the Mail can reveal.
Ross Thomson announced at the weekend he would not stand as candidate for Aberdeen South in next month’s General Election after Labour MP Paul Sweeney’s bombshell claim that he was groped by him in a Commons bar.
It is understood Mr Thomson, who insists he is innocent and is the victim of a ‘political smear’, was told by officials from his local branch that he would not be adopted as an election candidate if he refused to drop out.
The party yesterday moved to appoint a senior councillor who is a married father of two as its new candidate in Aberdeen South.
Simon Turner, chairman of the Aberdeen City Conservatives
Association, told Mr Thomson that he would not be formally adopted as a candidate shortly after the revelations broke.
A party source said: ‘The association had lost confidence in him and that was the message he was given – that he was not going to be the candidate.’
It is understood Mr Thomson, was upset when told the news but accepted he should stand aside.
An ally of Mr Thomson’s said: ‘To some degree, it is probably a relief to him because he has had a pretty unpleasant last year. The reality is going out and knocking doors for five or six weeks with all this going on was going to be tough.
‘We all knew, even before the Mail on Sunday story, that everything would be dredged up and it would have been difficult for him.’ Mr Thomson, 32, said he had endured a ‘living hell’ because of ‘anonymous and malicious allegations’. He also said abuse he has received has ‘affected my health, my mental wellbeing and my staff’.
Some Tory MPs had privately raised concerns about the impact being an MP had on Mr Thomson, including the amount of alcohol he was consuming.
Mr Sweeney confirmed he had reported Mr Thomson to Westminster authorities over an incident in the Commons’ Strangers bar in October last year.
He said he had taken a group of friends from Glasgow University for a drink and alleged he was interrupted by Mr Thomson, who was ‘drunk to the point where he was barely able to stand up’.
He claimed the MP then groped him through his clothes and made suggestive noises in his ear.
Mr Sweeney told the Mail on Sunday that he felt ‘paralysed’ and was ‘in a cold sweat’. He also raised concerns about being forced to work on the same corridor as someone who had ‘sexually assaulted’ him.
Yesterday, Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said: ‘In the exchange of texts I’ve had it was entirely Ross’s own decision.’ He insisted that he told Mr Thomson he would support him ‘whatever decision he arrived at’.
Mr Sweeney, 30, first made the allegations about ‘unwanted physical touching’ by Mr Thomson anonymously to the Daily Record in February after reports had emerged of another incident where the MP was accused of ‘sexual touching’ in the Parliament bar.
A spokesman for the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards yesterday said on the instruction of the House of Commons, it will ‘neither confirm nor deny whether an investigation is under way’.
Yesterday, the Tories announced Douglas Lumsden, co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, had been selected for Aberdeen South. Mr Carlaw said: ‘I’m quite confident in the outcome of the election.’
Mr Thomson’s former partner took to social media to back Mr Sweeney. According to the Daily Record, Douglas Mathewson, who was in a civil partnership with the politician, said in a message on Twitter which he subsequently deleted: ‘A really brave action by Paul Sweeney. To date, I have never seen an apology for the number of incidents linked to or caused by this individual.’
‘Not going to be the candidate’