Accusations of bullying and blackmail by a political aide within the Conservative party began with a note penned by a young activist found dead near his home in September.
The Guardian was the first major news organisation to write about the tragic death of Elliott Johnson and, a day later, to name Mark Clarke in connection to bullying allegations. In the weeks that followed, it revealed the failures of senior Conservatives to respond and ultimately prevent the scandal, culminating in proof that the then party co-chair, Grant Shapps, was warned about Clarke almost a year ago.
On Saturday, less the 24 hours after that evidence was published, Shapps was forced to resign over his role in the affair. Here are the key events in the Guardian investigation that broke the scandal that led to his departure.
The death of Elliott Johnson
A 21-year old Conservative blogger and activist from Cambridgeshire, Johnson was found dead on a railway line on 15 September. He had completed a history degree at Nottingham University and moved to London in June this year, taking up a job as political editor of the rightwing Tory pressure group Conservative Way Forward.
Though he had been made redundant a few weeks before his death, Johnson’s parents said he seemed in reasonable spirits and had job interviews lined up. In a note found after his death, Johnson wrote that he was “involved in a huge political issue. I have been bullied by Mark Clarke and betrayed by Andre Walker. I had to wrongly turn my back on my friends. Now all my political bridges are burnt. Where can I even go from here?”
On the day he died, Johnson mailed an audio recording to a colleague at Conservative Way Forward, Paul Abbott, who is a former chief of staff to Grant Shapps. The recording was of a conversation with Clarke and Walker in which they appear to threaten Johnson.
The rise and fall of Mark Clarke
A 38-year old consultant at Unilever, Clarke was appointed in July last year as director of RoadTrip 2015, which organised young activists to tour the country campaigning for Conservative candidates in key election seats.
In the previous election, Clarke stood as the Conservative candidate against Sadiq Khan in Tooting. Tory activists in that campaign reportedly formed a “6% club”, named after the swing that would have been sufficient for a Conservative majority, though not enough for Clarke to become an MP.
It has since been alleged that Clarke, who is married with two children, acted inappropriately towards activists. India Brummitt resigned as an aide to the Conservative minister Claire Perry after it was claimed that she and Clarke had sex on a pool table. Numerous allegations have emerged that Clarke was involved in schemes to blackmail at least one Tory MP.
This month, Clarke was expelled from the Conservative party for life as detail of the allegations became public.
The recording that linked the two
It seems possible that Johnson found himself caught in the middle of a broader fight between Clarke and Abbott, who reportedly fell out amid jockeying for position at Conservative Way Forward and for influence among the new generation of Conservative activists.
In the recording Johnson sent Abbott before his death, Clarke and Walker appear to pressure Johnson to withdraw a formal complaint he had made to the party about an alleged bullying incident at a friend’s birthday party in August. In his letter of complaint, Johnson wrote that Clarke pinned him to his chair and threatened to “squash him like an ant”. The recording was made on 2 September, 13 days before Johnson died. It is unclear how Clarke was made aware of Johnson’s complaint.
The letter that implicated Shapps
After the scandal first hit the headlines, the party insisted it had no record of any formal complaints Clarke’s behaviour before August of this year.
However, it was later revealed that a student activist sent a detailed complaint about Clarke’s alleged bullying in July last year. An official promised to act on the complaint but the student heard nothing and no action was taken against Clarke. That same month, Shapps appointed Clarke as director of RoadTrip, a voluntary post reporting directly to Shapps.
On Friday the Guardian revealed that Sayeeda Warsi, Shapps’s predecessor as Tory co-chair, had written to him in January this year demanding that Clarke be reprimanded for allegedly bullying her on Twitter.
Tories who still have questions to answer
Andrew Feldman, a friend of David Cameron since they played in the same tennis team at Brasenose College, Oxford, was co-chair of the party between May 2010 and this year’s general election, and has been in sole charge since. He will have to explain why Shapps’ resignation does not also suggest fault on his part.
The Conservatives maintain that Lord Feldman had no knowledge of the allegations until August, but that has been directly contradicted by Ben Howlett, the Conservative MP for Bath and a former chair of the party’s official youth wing. He said this month: “Lord Feldman has been well aware of all of this for a very long period of time.” Howlett said he had complained repeatedly about Clarke’s behaviour to Warsi and Shapps.
