Now PM’s pal Feldman is in the firing line as Tatler Tory scandal engulfs party
‘Why won’t Feldman protect us from Clarke?’
CONSERVATIVE PARTY chairman Lord Feldman was fighting for his political life last night after Grant Shapps was forced to resign over the ‘Tatler Tory’ scandal.
Baroness Emma Pidding was also in the firing line as pressure mounted over the party’s failure to control sex pest and bully Mark Clarke. She has long been a vocal cheerleader of the disgraced aide.
Friends of Feldman say he is terrified the row will force him to follow Shapps and quit the Government. Speaking days before Shapps’s dramatic exit as International Development Minister yesterday, the peer told a close friend: ‘My life has been a nightmare in the last two months.’
Feldman’s ‘nightmare’ started on September 15 when Tory activist Elliott Johnson took his own life after being bullied by Clarke. The pressure grew as this newspaper established that:
Feldman’s officials launched an inquiry to find out whether Baroness Pidding – who is accused of leaking to Clarke the names of his accusers – had an improper relationship with the shamed aide.
Feldman banned married Clarke and his mistress, Tory aide India Brummitt, from an Election night VIP bash because he was ‘horrified’ by their conduct – but weeks later still gave Clarke a new top Tory job.
Mr Johnson sobbed after being assaulted by Clarke in a pub, and blamed Feldman for failing to curb the activist.
Feldman was surprised by how many people were caught up in the scandal, telling one friend: ‘Every time I open The Mail on Sunday ten more crawl out of the woodwork’.
Feldman’s hopes of hanging on to his Cabinet job suffered a blow last night after allies of Shapps accused No 10 of ‘throwing him to the dogs to save the PM’s chum’ – a reference to Feldman’s close links to Cameron.
They were friends at Oxford and are tennis partners to this day.
Feldman is Cameron’s chief fundraiser and ‘fixer’, so losing him would be ‘unthinkable’, in the words of one member of Cameron’s inner circle.
But that is not how Shapps’s friends see it. One said: ‘It is pathetic to try to blame Grant for all this – he was co-chairman with Feldman before the Election so Feldman can’t wash his hands of it. Grant left Conservative Campaign Headquarters six months ago, for God’s sake. He has spent most of time since then in Africa with his ministerial job.
‘In the same period Feldman promoted Clarke to run “Road Trip 2020” and Pidding got a peerage on the back of it. If anyone should be punished, it is them.’
Tory activists bullied by Clarke say they were shocked to be confronted by him hours after giving evidence to the internal inquiry into Mr Johnson’s death, having been assured they would remain anonymous. It led to claims that Baroness Pidding, a close friend of senior Tory official Simon Mort, who carried out the inquiry, had leaked their names to her loyal ally Clarke.
Pidding, former chairman of the Conservatives National Convention, was a keen supporter of ‘Road Trip 2015’ and was made chairman of ‘Road Trip 2020’ under Clarke. Her support for Clarke helped secure Mr Cameron’s public show of support for him in July. And her work on the campaign helped Pidding obtain a peerage only weeks ago.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that Lord Feldman was told of rumours that Pidding had become too close to Clarke. Such was the concern in Tory HQ that Feldman asked officials to ask key senior Conservatives: ‘What is the nature of Baroness Pidding’s relationship with Mark Clarke?’
In a statement to The Mail on Sunday yesterday, Baroness Pidding vehemently denied having had an an improper relationship with Clarke. The Mail on Sunday has no evidence of any such improper relationship. She also denied leaking the names of his accusers. She said: ‘In 30 years as a volunteer for the Conservative Party I have never done anything blameworthy or underhand. My work with Road Trip 2015 alongside Mark Clarke was purely to improve the party’s electoral prospects. I neither witnessed nor was alerted to any behaviour that might have suggested anything untoward or unwelcome to do with Mr Clarke or anyone else.
‘I have never been told by Conservative Campaign Headquarters the specific nature of complaints made against Mr Clarke, nor the identity of the people making them. Beyond that, I cannot comment further.’
However, there is clear evidence that Feldman did not share Pidding’s admiration for Clarke – and that Pidding was aware of his views.
This newspaper has been told of an extraordinary incident on Election night in May as Feldman hosted a champagne victory party in the early hours of the morning for donors and other leading figures.
The event was VIPs only, and entry was restricted to those with a special wristband.
Pidding has told friends how she went to join the bash with Clarke and his mistress India Brummitt who was a Commons aide to Tory Minister Clarie Perry.
Clarke had flaunted his mistress on ‘Road Trips’ and shared hotel rooms with her on official overnight stays to the horror of MPs. Tongues were already wagging at Tory HQ, and Feldman knew it, if not Pidding.
A source said: ‘Pidding said to Feldman, “I love my friends Mark and India, they’d love to come to the party and need wristbands.”’
But Feldman chose to ignore it – Clarke, 38, and Brummitt, 25, were effectively barred. Moreover, Feld- man’s attempt to place the blame for the scandal on Shapps’ shoulders appears to be contradicted by new evidence of the view of Mr Johnson himself. A friend said the young activist referred to Feldman by name after Clarke bullied him in Westminster’s Marquis of Granby pub. In the August 12 incident, Clarke physically pinned him in his chair in front of dozens of shocked activists.
After a friend rescued him, a sobbing Johnson cried out: ‘I want to talk to Feldman. Why isn’t he protecting us from Mark Clarke?’
The incident led to several Conservatives complaining directly to Feldman’s office.
The Tory chairman launched an inquiry, but it was too late. After further bullying by Clarke – amid claims that he had been tipped off by a Tory HQ ‘mole’ about who was making the complaints – 21-year-old Mr Johnson took his own life on a railway line in Bedfordshire.