In the latest development in a story first broken by Breitbart London on September 16th this year, International Development Minister and former Conseravtive co-chairman Grant Shapps is said to be resigning over his alleged failure to deal with internal party bullying.
Conservative activist Elliott Johnson took his own life in September, leaving a suicide note believed to contain serious allegations about his having been bullied by senior members of the party in the run up to his death.
Former party manager Mark Clarke was expelled from the Conservatives last week for his role in bullying young activists and sexual harassment. The father of Elliott Johnson called on Grant Shapps and party chairman Lord Feldman to resign their posts this week over their failure to deal with the problem and prevent his sons death.
Speaking to the Guardian, Mr. Johnson senior said: “They need to stand down… Feldman, Shapps, and whoever else is involved in this; clearly these senior members of the party have been telling lies. You wonder about the people running the country – whether they’re fit to govern.
“If they had behaved responsibly, like any other organisation, none of these events would have happened; my son would still be alive and many activists wouldn’t have been intimidated and harassed”.
While the Conservative party had denied there were historical allegations of abuse and bullying against Mr. Clarke, emails confirming that senior Tory Paul Abbott had been forced to deal with complaints in the run up to the election were leaked to the press.
Reminding Mr. Clarke that he hadn’t single handedly won the election for the Conservatives with his leadership of the Roadtrip campaign, Mr. Abbott wrote: “I did have to do quite a lot of ‘corralling’ as well, even if you don’t remember it now! This included for example dealing with all the complaints made about RoadTrip and your behaviour — from Associations, young activists, MPs/candidates, and so forth”.
Following the Prime Minister telling press there would be a major announcement on the tragic Elliott case today, media sources in Westminster are reporting that Mr. Shapps has resigned his position, reports Sky News.
More on this story as it develops.