A young Conservative Party activist claims she woke up naked next to an MP with no memory of what had happened the previous night in the latest twist to the ongoing Tory sex scandal involving drugs, blackmail and bullying.
The incident is alleged to have happened after she met the unnamed MP for drinks in London in late August. The Telegraph reports that several allies of disgraced former party aide Mark Clarke were also allegedly drinking with the woman and the MP that evening.
The allegation comes as police consider intervening in the ongoing scandal which has engulfed the party. Senior activist Mark Clarke, who ran the RoadTrip 2015 campaign that bussed young activists around the country, is alleged to be involved in bullying, sexual assault, blackmail and drug taking, with numerous complaints being made against him.
He was expelled from the party for life last week as the BBC broadcast an exposé of the scandal on their Newsnight show. He denies the allegations.
Suicide of a young activist
The scandal first blew up after 21-year-old Conservative Party activist Elliott Johnson committed suicide in September.
He left behind a note blaming bullying for his decision to take his own life. It was later reported that Mr Clarke “pinned” him to a chair in a Westminster bar, and grabbed his face during an argument.
Mr Clarke allegedly tried to blackmail him in a second meeting by threatening to expose a police caution from his student days. Days later, Mr Jonhson committed suicide.
Mr Clarke says he “strongly refutes” any accusations that he bullied Mr Johnson.
‘Revenge porn’ blackmail
Mr Clarke has admitted trying to leak a video of a Conservative rival engaging in a sex act, but claims he did in an attempt to expose the scandal.
The victim claims he was duped into performing the sex act online and then told to pay £2,500 to stop the video being leaked. He refused, and the video was posted on Facebook. He claims Mr Clarke was responsible for the film.
Sexual misconduct while campaigning
Three woman have claimed Mr Clarke attacked or threatened them during the now notorious Road Trip campaigns.
One woman said he shoved her into a doorway and grabbed her neck, saying he wanted to sleep with her. Another said he psychologically abused her after they had a sexual relationship.
The third alleges he molested her at a Conservative Party event when she was 17.
Mr Clarke has not commented on the allegations.
Entrapment of MPs
It also claimed Mr Clarke encouraged young women and men to seduce MPs so he could blackmail them.
A whistleblower accused him of snorting cocaine at party events and said he “pimped out” young female activists to heterosexual MPs and young male activists to gay MPs.
“I am told that they were instructed to go as far as possible, whilst Mark would arrange to film whatever encounters ensued,” the whistleblower said.
“On a separate later occasion at an event in London, I overheard Mark and his friends discussing plans to humiliate those who ‘crossed their path’ or who weren’t susceptible to sexual bribes, by spiking their drinks and taking intimate pictures of them whilst they were under the influence.”
Sex cheat minister
Robert Halfon MP, the Conservative Party’s current deputy chairman and a Minister without Portfolio who attends Cabinet meetings, has confessed to an affair with 30-year-old Alexandra Paterson, chair of the party’s Conservative Future youth wing.
It is alleged that Mr Clarke asked an ally to film Mr Halfon and Miss Paterson leaving the East India Club in central London together so he could blackmail Mr Halfon into giving him a winnable seat at the next election. Mr Clarke denies the allegations.
It later emerged that Mr Halfon billed the taxpayer £25,000 for his stays at the East India Club, which has private suites for members to spend the night.
Further allegations
Speaking to the Express, Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group, the oldest Tory think-tank, said that Mr Clarke had threatened him too, in a bid to stop “dissenting voices” ahead of May’s election.
“I believe they thought that if they were going to win the election they needed to stop dissenting voices and ensure everyone on the coaches did as they were told. They achieved this with a climate of fear that Clarke was instrumental in,” Mr Harris-Quinney says.