The PM’s enforcer has thrown me to the wolves
TOMORROW is Christmas Day. Christmas should be a time of celebration – yet this year, for me and my family, it will be a more sombre occasion. Damian Green was informed of the allegations against him and afforded the courtesy of a full inquiry by the Cabinet Office.
In my case, it’s now more than seven weeks since I was accused of unspecified allegations.
To this day, I have not been interviewed by the police, nor have they told me what I am accused of or who my accuser is.
Just after 9pm on Friday, November 3, I was relaxing at home with my family. The phone rang; it was a journalist saying he had heard I was having the party whip removed. Did I want to make a comment?
Many minutes later, I spoke to the new Conservative Chief Whip Julian Smith who told me of ‘serious allegations’ that had been referred to the police. I asked what they were and he would not tell me. He would only say that I was having the Conservative whip suspended.
My wife and I spent that weekend wondering whether I would be arrested at any moment. The knock never came. And has not to this day. Seven weeks on.
In the meantime, the press pack descended on our home; neighbours watched horrified as our bins were checked out; the local pubs were full of press asking for the inside track on their MP for the price of a drink.
Work colleagues and friends of the family have been subject to unwanted intrusion. Throwing a public figure out to the wolves has grave consequences. Yet the support of friends, my community in Dover & Deal and parliamentary colleagues has been incredible.
Meanwhile on social media, anonymous accounts spew vitriol that Twitter refuses to take down. After all, why not when the Chief Whip – who has never been my biggest fan – has declared open season?
In the febrile atmosphere that grips our country from time to time, we must never rush to judgment. We must always remember it is a cornerstone of our constitution that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Proper procedures should always be followed.
Whatever allegations may be put to me, I deny any criminal wrongdoing.
However I cannot deny that the pressure of these events has taken a heavy toll on me and my family and cast a long shadow this Christmas.
‘To this day, I’ve not been told what I’m accused of’
THE great Czech novelist Franz Kafka (who was also a lawyer) wrote in his book The Trial about a man pursued by shadowy authorities for a crime which they will not even name.
He never finds out what he is accused of, though he is driven to the depths of misery.
British people reading this would once give thanks that they lived in a free country where such things were unknown. But now it is happening among us.
Tory MP Charlie Elphicke describes in The Mail on Sunday today his seven weeks of Kafkaesque hell, during which he has been publicly thrown to the wolves, without ever being told what he is alleged to have done.
This is a breach of British justice. If there is a case to answer, he must immediately be told what it is and allowed to defend himself.
If there is none, this is rank persecution and must cease, and he should never have been named.