RESIGNED EXPOSED DOOMED?
Tatler Tory scandal forces Minister out... ...After we reveal new MP blackmail plot PM’s pal in firing line over our revelations
MINISTER Grant Shapps was forced to quit over the ‘Tatler Tory’ scandal yesterday amid shocking new claims of blackmail, adultery and political corruption.
He resigned as Overseas Aid Minister after he was blamed by No10 for giving a top job in the Election campaign to Mark Clarke, who bullied activist Elliott Johnson, 21, before he killed himself in September .
Shapps’ exit came as this newspaper alerted No10 to accusations that Clarke was trying to blackmail a female aide to Tory Cabinet Minister Robert Halfon over an affair with a married Tory MP.
Clarke had allegedly told the woman to win Halfon’s backing for his bid to become a Tory MP or the relationship would be exposed.
Halfon last night confirmed that he backed Clarke to be put on the list of candidates, as he had been initially impressed by him and knew of no blackmail threat. Clarke’s name was later removed from the list by a senior official at Conservative Campaign HQ.
The new blackmail claim, which Clarke
denies as ‘false’, was the last straw for No10.
It came amid mounting evidence that senior Conservatives ignored repeated warnings about Clarke, as well as powerful new claims by Mr Johnson’s parents of a Tory cover-up concerning their son’s death.
Downing Street decided someone had to take responsibility for the scandal – and Shapps, demoted to a junior minister after the Election for his gaffes, was told to fall on his sword.
Earlier this month this newspaper revealed how Halfon told No10 he feared he had been the victim of a separate blackmail threat by Clarke over his own affair with another female Conservative official.
The Tory MP involved in the new blackmail row with Clarke threatened to apply for a legal injunction to prevent this newspaper identifying him for ‘family reasons’ last night. We agreed not to name him.
This newspaper has also decided not to identify Halfon’s female assistant who was in the affair with the unnamed MP.
The blackmail claim is said to have been reported to Tory chairman Lord Feldman by a former adviser to Cabinet Minister Liz Truss, who is not involved in any way.
In the run-up to the Election, there were also rumours that Shapps was having an extramarital affair, which could have left him open to blackmail. But he vehemently denied the claims, and The Mail on Sunday has no evidence that they were true.
The departure of Shapps followed growing panic in the Tory Party as the scandal threatened to drag in more and more senior figures. Shapps’ allies claimed he had been made a ‘scapegoat’ to protect Feldman, a close friend of the Prime Minister. Shapps was accused of ignoring a series of warnings that Clarke – who earned his nickname after Tatler magazine singled him out as a future Tory Minister – was a serial sex pest and bully.
As Tory co-chairman with Feldman before the Election, Shapps made Clarke a Tory ‘director’, gave him a desk in the party’s HQ and backed his ‘Road Trip 2015’ Election campaign, which involved busloads of young activists campaigning in key constituencies led by married Clarke, 38. But he used the tour to prey on women, flaunt his mistress and bully others.
After the Election up to 25 activists complained – and when Mr Johnson was found dead by a railway track in Bedfordshire, the scandal erupted. The Mail on Sunday was first to report the matter, and after eight weeks of silence the rest of Fleet Street followed.
Asked about the blackmail attempt last night, Halfon denied any wrongdoing. His spokesman said: ‘Robert sent a reference about Clarke only because he thought he had done a good job on the road trips.
‘He was categorically not aware of any of the allegations made against him now. Had he been, he obviously would not have endorsed him in any way.’
Last week we revealed how Clarke was accused of trying to humiliate another male Tory activist, who was duped into performing a lewd act on the internet. The man received a demand for £2,500 to stop footage being posted on his Facebook page. When the man, one of those who had complained to Tory HQ about Clarke, refused, it was posted. Kent Police are now investigating.
News of Shapps’ resignation was broken by the Prime Minister at a dramatic press conference in Malta. Mr Cameron effectively sacked Shapps after he was asked if the Minister had his ‘complete confidence’. He pointedly refused to give it and coldly said a statement ‘would be released’ soon afterwards.
Mr Cameron was asked by The Mail on Sunday if he had a message for Mr Johnson’s parents, Ray and Alison. He said: ‘It is a tragic loss of a very talented young life and it is not something that any parent should have to go through.’
With the scandal edging closer to the doors of No10, Mr Cameron rejected the Johnsons’ claim of a cover-up, and tried to assuage them, saying: ‘It is so important that there is the proper independent inquiry.’
Shapps said he was resigning because the ‘buck stopped with him’ for giving ‘a second chance’ to Clarke, leading to the ‘widely reported, very serious allegations’. Shapps continued to maintain his innocence, stating that ‘neither the party nor I can find any record of written allegations of bullying, sexual abuse or blackmail made to the chairman’s office prior to the Election’.
But he added that he was quitting because ‘I cannot help but feel that the steady stream of those who raised smaller, more nuanced, objections should have perhaps set alarm bells ringing sooner’.
In response, Mr Cameron paid tribute to Shapps’ ‘seemingly unremitting amount of energy’ and for being a ‘loyal and trusted supporter of mine’.
Labour were quick to seize the chance to distract from their own political problems. Shadow Minister Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘We need to know just how widely this goes. We need a fully independent inquiry to look at culture and practices in the Tory Party.’
Nick Hurd, son of former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, is to replace Shapps as Overseas Aid Minister.