Time to purge poison of the Tatler Tory

THE Prime Minister and her party are quite wrong if they think the Tatler Tory scandal is behind them. This toxic affair, which The Mail on Sunday has pursued from the beginning, is not a hangover from the Cameron era; it is a dangerous live issue.

The party’s report into the affair was rightly dismissed last week as a whitewash by many of those affected. Now, previously unpublished pictures and videos show Theresa May in person, unusually relaxed in the company of Mark Clarke, the man at the centre of allegations of sleaze and bullying. She can even be seen slapping him on the back.

Perhaps even more telling is her recent appointment of Jimmy McLoughlin to a well-paid position at the heart of her small circle of Downing Street advisers. This young man, already at the centre of power at the age of 30, is not only the son of Tory chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin – a connection that would normally raise eyebrows by itself. He is also an associate of the dubious Mark Clarke.

Clarke’s behaviour and unpleasant reputation were an open secret at high levels in the party during all of these events. He had been removed from the candidates’ list years before his jolly evening with Mrs May. Is it possible that his misdeeds were tolerated and forgotten because he was so valuable in the crucial dark arts of election-winning?

It seems very likely. But it is now clear that the relationship has to end, and that the Tory Party, and Mrs May personally, have to act, once and for all, to admit the whole truth about the Tatler Tory and to purge this poison permanently from the party – rather than breathe new life into it, as she is in danger of doing.