Why I fear the Tories are becoming the sleazy party again

WHEN I became a political reporter nearly 25 years ago, the Conservatives were already in the process of acquiring an unenviable reputation as the party of sleaze.

One Tory after another was drawn into a series of unsavoury financial and sexual scandals. In some cases, there was an innocent explanation.

Nevertheless, these played a huge role in helping Tony Blair win his huge victory in the 1997 General election.

To his great credit, when William Hague succeeded John Major as leader, he set about sorting out the problem. New systems were installed and the bad eggs ruthlessly eliminated.

As a result, by the time David Cameron was elected leader in 2005, the word Tory was no longer synonymous with corruption.

This claim can no longer be made with confidence. Almost every day brings fresh evidence that the Prime Minister and his entourage are finding it impossible to resist the temptation to abuse power.

Mr Cameron has allowed the Conservatives to grow far too close to the superrich — his party’s repugnant Black and White party a few weeks ago was a gruesome reminder of this.

Too many of the Prime Minister’s profoundly undistinguished personal cronies have been appointed to the House of Lords.

Last week, in an especially disreputable episode, it emerged that Treasury ministers attempted to put political pressure on the supposedly independent Office for Budget Responsibility, apparently in order to massage economic forecasts for political advantage.

To be fair to the Prime Minister, this sort of thing has always tended to happen towards the end of a long period of office, whoever is in power. However, there have been two recent episodes that suggest something has gone very wrong indeed.

THE first of these was the scandal that erupted after the distressing suicide last summer of elliott Johnson, a 21-year-old party activist. In the weeks that followed, it emerged that a culture of bullying and sexual blackmail had been permitted to take hold at the heart of the Tory Party campaigning machine.

After Party Chairman Andrew Feldman proved incapable of dealing with the problem, a law firm was hired to carry out a supposedly independent investigation. Huge questions remain to be answered in the aftermath of this wretched episode.

Now, Tory campaigning methods are back in focus in the wake of an exemplary investigation by Michael Crick and the investigations team at Channel 4 News.

Channel 4 has provided disturbing evidence that the Conservatives disregarded electoral law by overspending recklessly on a series of crucial by-elections in 2014.

More serious still, Channel 4 has provided what looks like hard evidence that the Conservative Party compounded the offence by submitting at the very least misleading election returns to returning officers — a criminal offence punishable by jail.

Particularly suspicious, most of the hotel bills at the by- elections were not reserved or paid for by the Conservative Party directly, as one would expect. Instead, they were sorted out by a party official named Marion Little, using her personal address.

Crucially, none of these payments made by Marion Little seem to have appeared on the returns submitted to the returning officers of the relevant constituencies.

Over the past two weeks, I have sent a batch of detailed questions to the Tory Party asking for an explanation of Marion Little’s role.

The party has completely failed to answer, beyond a bland statement to the effect that ‘all spending has been correctly recorded in accordance with the law’.

This could prove a very grave scandal indeed, because it potentially involves the Prime Minister. The Conservatives’ director of campaigning at the time the alleged abuses occurred was Stephen (now Lord) Gilbert, who was also working as David Cameron’s political secretary.

According to documents I have seen, Lord Gilbert stayed in hotels that had been booked for him by Marion Little. As campaign director, it was Lord Gilbert’s job to oversee all by-elections.

Despite attempts by phone, text and email, I was unable to reach Lord Gilbert yesterday.

There may, of course, be an entirely innocent explanation for all these apparent discrepancies in Conservative campaign expenses.

However, it is becoming increasingly urgent that the party should answer detailed questions. The full Board of the Conservative party meets next Tuesday, and I understand questions will be raised on this matter. About time, too.

Bland, one-sentence denials that the law has not been broken are no longer sufficient.

This arrogant refusal to answer questions is already giving rise to deep discontent among rank-andfile activists. Yesterday I spoke to John Strafford, a member of the party for 50 years and long- standing chairman of the Conservative Campaign for Democracy.

HE TOLD me that ‘ the law was designed by Parliament to set a level of expenditure at by-elections to ensure a level playing field. ‘The Conservative Party must be transparent. If it can’t do that, we need to have an independent public inquiry’.

The need for transparency is all the more urgent because of the impending referendum on British membership of the european Union. Under strict electoral Commission rules, neither side is allowed to spend more than £7 million making their case.

David Cameron’s Tory Party — or at least most of it — is backing the Remain campaign.

The civil service, too, has been co-opted to support his cause — right down to banning Cabinet ministers in the Leave campaign from seeing papers on eU matters.

How can we feel confident that Mr Cameron’s party won’t overspend in order to gain an unfair advantage — as Channel 4 claims it repeatedly did in by-elections?

Lord Feldman, Conservative Party Chairman and Cameron crony, continues to face questions about unacceptable and possibly illegal behaviour in his party. (Feldman himself has recently been accused of abusing his role by soliciting financial support for the Remain campaign.)

He cannot hide behind bland and evasive answers. The stench of sleaze at the heart of the Conservative machine is growing. It’s time for them to come clean.