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THE Tory Party has suspended the national committee of its youth wing en masse amid claims that complaints of “institutionalised bullying” were repeatedly ignored.
The move follows claims by a former chairman of Conservative Future that he raised concerns with the party high command on numerous occasions but that the issue was “swept under the carpet.”
Ben Howlett said he had raised concerns about what he described as “institutionalised bullying” with Conservative Campaign Headquarters over a period of years, but they were consistently ignored.
Mr Howlett, who was elected MP for Bath at the general election in May, told BBC2’s Newsnight that there had been a “huge range of complaints” — including allegations of inappropriate advances to women activists.
“It was unfortunately swept under the carpet in the big scheme of things, because the party didn’t want to end up having the general election result lost I can imagine, and you don’t want to talk about those kind of thing whilst an election is going on,” he said.
The Tories also announced yesterday that a senior aide, Mark Clarke, who is facing complaints of bullying and inappropriate behaviour, has had his membership cancelled for life.
Mr Clarke, who strongly denies the allegations, had previously been suspended following claims that he had bullied a young activist, Elliott Johnson, who subsequently committed suicide.
Further allegations about Mr Clarke, who ran a campaign which mobilised young activists to lobby in marginalised constituencies, emerged over the weekend.
In a statement, a Tory Party spokesman said: “The national committee of Conservative Future has been suspended further to a decision by the board of the Conservative Party.”
