Tatler Tory Mark Clarke sex blackmail Young Britons Foundn.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

ANOTHER top Conservative resigns over bullying scandal: Thatcher foundation chief forced to quit over links to 'Tatler Tory'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367357/ANOTHER-Conservative-r esigns-bullying-scandal-Thatcher-foundation-chief-forced-quit-links-Ta tler-Tory.html

By Simon Walters for The Mail on Sunday
22:18 19 Dec 2015, updated 12:14 20 Dec 2015
Donal Blaney has resigned as leader of Conservative Way Forward group
Comes after Mail on Sunday exposed links with controversial Mark Clarke
Piles more pressure on Lord Feldman to resign over claims about Clarke
Grant Shapps already gone and other senior members may be implicated
For more on the 'Tatler Tory' scandal visit www.dailymail.co.uk/tories
The ‘Tatler Tory’ scandal claimed another political victim last night when a former friend of Margaret Thatcher was forced to resign in disgrace.

Donal Blaney, a former ally of shamed Mark Clarke, resigned as chairman of the influential Conservative Way Forward campaign group, set up to honour the former Prime Minister’s legacy, as the result of an investigation by The Mail on Sunday.

Dramatically, Blaney said he is also leaving Britain to live and work full-time in America.

Donal Blaney (left), a former ally of shamed Mark Clarke, resigned as chairman of the influential Conservative Way Forward campaign group, set up to honour the former Prime Minister’s legacy +8
Donal Blaney (left), a former ally of shamed Mark Clarke, resigned as chairman of the influential Conservative Way Forward campaign group, set up to honour the former Prime Minister’s legacy
Blaney with his arm around Mark Clarke. They were both involved in the Young Britons Foundation's inner circle +8
Blaney with his arm around Mark Clarke. They were both involved in the Young Britons Foundation's inner circle
Blaney has now resigned, claiming that he can no longer fulfill his role as he is going to America +8
Blaney has now resigned, claiming that he can no longer fulfill his role as he is going to America
He resigned after the Mail on Sunday ucovered his involvement with Tatler Tory Clarke (pictured with Elliott Johnson, left, and Marina Muttik, right), banned for life from the Tories after claims of bullying, blackmail and sexual assault +8
He resigned after the Mail on Sunday ucovered his involvement with Tatler Tory Clarke (pictured with Elliott Johnson, left, and Marina Muttik, right), banned for life from the Tories after claims of bullying, blackmail and sexual assault
Tory grandees feared that evidence uncovered by this newspaper of Blaney’s involvement with Tatler Tory Clarke, banned for life from the Tories after claims of bullying, blackmail and sexual assault, could tarnish Lady Thatcher’s reputation.

And there are concerns it could wreck plans to create a Margaret Thatcher Centre, a separate project headed by Blaney with Conservative Way Forward (CWF) backing.

MORE...
Tories are accused of 'trying to gag' two women who claim MP Lucy Allan is a bully
The Tatler Tory, the youth wing godfather...and the bullying scandal poisoning Mrs Thatcher's legacy
Lawyer Blaney, 41, bought more than £200,000 worth of items at last week’s auction of Thatcher memorabilia on behalf of the centre.

His exit piles more pressure on Tory chairman Lord Feldman who has rejected calls to resign over the row, which has become one of the biggest party political scandals in years.

Lord Feldman is now under more pressure to resign +8
Lord Feldman is now under more pressure to resign
CWF is an integral part of the Tory movement and Feldman will likely be seen as responsible for the way its members behave - but Conservative HQ last night insisted that the pressure group is an entirely independent organisation that is not part of the party.

A growing number of Tory MPs believe it is now a matter of when, and not if, Feldman himself resigns.

And last night the tentacles of the scandal even threatened to reach into Ukip after its only MP, Douglas Carswell, complained about the ‘aggressive’ behaviour of Matthew Richardson – the Ukip party secretary who is also a close friend of Mark Clarke.

Shortly after a furious Commons bust-up with Mr Richardson, Mr Carswell received a threatening phone call from a senior Ukip figure asking ‘grossly intrusive questions’ about the state of his marriage.

Richardson, was best man at the wedding of Clarke – dubbed the ‘Tatler Tory’ after the magazine tipped him as a future Minister – and is a Freemason in the same Lodge. He denies behaving aggressively towards Carswell, or any knowledge of the phone call.

Blaney’s resignation brings the ‘Tatler Tory’ scandal even closer to the heart of the Party.

He knows a string of Cabinet Ministers past and present and his best friend is Treasury Minister Greg Hands, George Osborne’s Tory ‘fixer.’

Blaney quit after The Mail on Sunday was told of new claims, including:

Tory activist Elliott Johnson who killed himself after bullying by Clarke said he had seen cocaine being snorted openly at a CWF event.
Days after encouraging Elliott to tell Tory HQ about Clarke’s bullying, CWF fired Elliott from his CWF job saying they were ‘protecting’ him from Clarke.
Blaney asked Elliott to pay him £400 an hour for legal advice over a minor matter.
Blaney also charged young Tory activists smeared by Clarke’s gang for legal advice.
Clarke (left) with Grant Shapps, who has already been forced to resign over his involvement in the scandal +8
Clarke (left) with Grant Shapps, who has already been forced to resign over his involvement in the scandal
Blaney said he was resigning as CWF chairman to look after his ill wife in their US home. He added he no longer had enough time to carry out his CWF duties and planned to expand his legal work in America.

A spokesman said last night: ‘There is and can be no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Donal or CWF. Others are accountable for their own wrongdoing. He cannot be.’

Mr Blaney is being replaced by Sir Gerald Howarth MP, who was already chairman of a separate part of the CWF.

The group’s chief executive Paul Abbott is also resigning.

He was among those who encouraged Elliott to complain about Clarke. Mr Abbott, who recently became a father for the first time, will be taking at least a six-month break from politics, according to sources.

Mr Abbott was formerly chief of staff to former Tory chairman Grant Shapps, who was forced to resign as a Minister last month over the Clarke affair.

[TonyGosling]

They were Freemasons!
EXCLUSIVE-“WORSE THAN MILITANT”- THE GANG OF FOUR CAUGHT IN TORY BULLYING ALLEGATIONS, WITH FREEMASONRY LINKS
Nick Mutch photo Nick MutchLondon, UK04 Dec. 2015
https://www.byline.com/project/30/article/645

EXCLUSIVE-“Worse than Militant”- The Gang of Four caught in Tory Bullying Allegations, with Freemasonry links
Byline can reveal the links between a group of four Conservative activists central to the Tory bullying scandal, and how their campaign to infiltrate the Conservative Party began as far back as May 2014.
THE COUP AT CONSERVATIVE FUTURE

Likened by Conservative critics to the ‘militant’ tendency or the ‘gang of four’, Mark Clarke, Donal Blaney, Harry Cole and Paul Abbott are accused of a coup in various Conservative organisations, including the Thatcherite grouping, Conservative Way Forward and Conservative Future, the Tory Party’s youth wing

During the summer of 2014, senior members of Conservative Future have alleged a ‘takeover’ of the youth wing by a ‘RoadTrip Slate’ that used bullying and blackmail in order to force the resignation or withdrawal of nominations for the leadership of the national executive council.
All five members of the executive have been suspended while the bullying allegations around the suicide of Elliott Johnson this September are investigated by Clifford Chance.
One Senior Tory source described them as an ‘entryist tendency’ that attempted to exploit control over the party’s youth wing to increase its standing within the Conservatives.

Conservative Future was taken over by what Tory blog The Blue Guerilla describes as the ‘RoadTrip Slate’, led by Alexandra Paterson. Paterson was allegedly the target of a blackmail scheme by Clarke over her affair with Tory minister Robert Haflon.

Sarah Jane Sewell, then deputy Chair of Conservative Future, resigned in a letter in which she wrote that the candidate for “national chairman has apparently been promoted using the Conservative Party’s Team2015 mailing lists and the Conservative Party social media accounts.”
Sewell also wrote of social media campaign of smears. "I myself have been besmirched in the most abhorrent fashion,” she wrote “and I have little doubt that other opponents would be subject to similar treatment from those who seemingly act with impunity.”

Other senior members, including Conservative Future chairman Oliver Cooper, London Conservative Future Chairman Nabil Najjar and Trent Conservative Future Chairman Nadim Muslim all resigned during the month.
Harry Cole tweeted his support of her resignation and the campaign against her;


THE YBF ALUMNI: AN "ENTRYIST TENDENCY"
Running both Roadtrip 2015, and alleged to be behind the coup at Conservative Future was Mark Clarke, the ‘Tatler Tory’ at the centre of allegations of bullying and blackmail. Clark has vigorously denied all these allegations.
Clarke was previously a director of ‘outreach’ at the Young Briton’s Foundation, a Conservative Youth group tasked with training the majority of young Conservative activists for election campaigning. Founded in 2003, the YBF is effectively the UK offshoot of the right wing republican group that run the Reagan Ranch in the United States – the Young America’s Foundation
One of the key figures in the YBF, Donal Blaney, was a supporter of Clarke’s project.
On 8 May 2015 he tweeted that the decisive election results were due to the influence of RoadTrip 2015. He has since deleted the tweets



Joining Blaney and Clarke as alumni of the Young Briton’s Foundation is the former Westminster Correspondent for the right wing gossip blog, Guido Fawkes, and now at the Sun newspaper-Harry Cole.
Cole was awarded YBF’s Dolphin Award for political courage in 2012, and tweeted out his thanks to both Mark Clarke and Donal Blaney. Mark Clarke was awarded the Golden Dolphin Award, described as the "personal gift of Donal Blaney" in 2015.


The website has since been updated to remove Clarke's name from the list of recipients.

Cole and Clarke were also key members of the Trade Union Reform Campaign, a short-lived lobbying group set up in 2012 with MP Aidan Burley. Clarke was the chief executive. Cole was variously described as ‘Parliament liaison officer’ and ‘social media’ advisor’.

Meanwhile the key fourth member and YBF alumni is Paul Abbott, who was chief of staff to Grant Shapps when he was helping to run the election campaign, and has since moved over to run Conservative Way forward. He can be glimpsed in the white shirt between Lynton Crosby and Jim Messina in this picture taken during the May 2015 election. (The other flanking figures are party chairmen Lord Feldman and Grant Shapps)

Byline revealed earlier this week how Abbott allegedly watched Mark Clarke bully senior Oxford tory activists but took no action, despite offering and apology for Clarkes behaviour.
During the time of the Conservative Future takeover in July 2014, Cole, Abbott and Clarke were pictured at Didcot Parkway as members of a new cricket team called the Westminster Wolverines.

Top second from left – Paul Abbott. Far right – Mark Clarke. Middle of bottom row – Harry Cole

Byline can now reveal there have been multiple allegations that Cole, Abbott and Clarke were attending an annual cricket match as Freemasons associated with Phoenix Lodge (number 173) a University Affiliated Lodge.
Byline wrote to Cole at his Sun newspaper email address on Wednesday asking to comment on these allegations, and asking whether his coverage of the activities of his colleagues was appropriate in the circumstances. Cole has regularly written about his YBF colleagues on the Guido Fawkes blog, the Spectator and the Sun without declaring an interest.

Cole has not responded to our request to correct or comment.

UPDATE- Donal Blaney has since admitted that he and Clarke are Freemasons at the Phoenix lodge. Watch the full interview with Iain Dale (starts at 7.52) http://www.lbc.co.uk/tory-bullying-scandal-donal-blaney-121103

[TonyGosling]

Tatler Tory's Freemason cronies: Mark Clarke goes to the same lodge as councillor who formerly worked for law firm chosen to conduct inquiry into bullying scandal
Mark Clarke and his cronies are Freemasons and went to Phoenix Lodge
One of Clarke’s fellow Phoenix Freemason is Tory councillor Andy Peterkin
'I am sick and tired of seeing him kicked to death in public,' Peterkin said
See more news on the Conservative Party at www.dailymail.co.uk/tories
By SIMON WALTERS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 23:46, 5 December 2015 | UPDATED: 13:54, 6 December 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3347667/Tatler-Tory-s-Freemaso n-cronies-Mark-Clarke-goes-lodge-councillor-worked-law-firm-chosen-con duct-inquiry-bullying-scandal.html

The ‘Tatler Tory’ scandal took a new turn last night after it emerged that Mark Clarke and his cronies are Freemasons.

They are members of the Phoenix Lodge, based in Wandsworth, South London, where Clarke lives – and meet there to hatch political plots.

One of Clarke’s fellow Phoenix Freemasons is lawyer and Conservative councillor Andy Peterkin. Mr Peterkin formerly worked for Clifford Chance, the London law firm chosen by Tory chairman Lord Feldman to conduct an independent inquiry into the Clarke scandal, and now works for Farrar and Co, the Queen’s lawyers.

One of Clarke’s fellow Phoenix Freemasons is lawyer and Conservative councillor Andy Peterkin (left)
+6
One of Clarke’s fellow Phoenix Freemasons is lawyer and Conservative councillor Andy Peterkin (left)

When the bullying claims against Clarke surfaced, Mr Peterkin leapt to his defence on Facebook saying: ‘Mark Clarke is one of my best mates. Feel free to unfriend me if that offends you.’ He has since deleted it.

Mr Peterkin told The Mail on Sunday. ‘I have given Mark a shoulder to cry on but I am not giving him legal or any other advice. I am sick and tired of seeing him kicked to death in public.’

Other Phoenix Freemasons include Clarke’s henchman Andre Walker. Walker helped Clarke bully Elliott Johnson, before the activist took his own life. He also tried to trap one of Clarke’s female Tory foes into being caught on camera snorting cocaine.

Ukip general secretary Matthew Richardson, another close friend of Clarke’s, is a former Worshipful Master of Phoenix Lodge.

Tory party activist Elliott Johnson (centre) was bullied by Mark Clarke. He took his own life, aged 21

As an Oxford student, Mr Richardson set up an online forum where people could post gossip anonymously– until it was shut down amid legal threats.

Clarke ally Greg Smith, an aide to Cabinet Minister Greg Hands, is also a former Phoenix Worshipful Master. It was at Smith’s summer wedding that Clarke caused outrage by holding hands with Ms Brummitt in church. A guest bawled out Clarke, saying he should be at home with his wife and children.

Fellow Phoenix Freemason Donal Blaney runs the Thatcherite Conservative Way Forward, where Mr Johnson worked. He was one of Clarke’s closest friends – until he disowned him as a ‘narcissistic sociopath’ after a recent fall-out.

Renowned for its secret handshakes and bizarre rituals, Freemasonry has long been suspected of having members in high places in the judiciary and the police, although in recent years the organisation has tried to shrug off its reputation for conspiracies and the dark arts. Freemasons are traditionally obliged to swear an oath, blindfolded, bare-chested, with a noose around their neck and a dagger placed to their heart, and to never reveal the hidden mysteries of the organisation.

Masonic rules say members – of which there are around 250,000 in England and Wales – must keep each others’ lawful secrets, which has led to fears that it fosters corrupt cliques.

But Freemasons’ leaders say alleged historic links with political and criminal conspiracies are a myth and in 2012 launched an exercise promising greater openness. Prince Edward is Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England.


COMMENT: At last, a Tory stands up to bully
By Simon Walters
If he were alive today, Elliott Johnson would be proud of his friend and fellow passionate Conservative Patrick Sullivan.
As with Elliott, Mark Clarke bullied and abused him in a bar out of spite.
As with Elliott, when Mr Sullivan stood up for himself, Clarke bullied him again in another bar.
As with Elliott, cowardly Clarke used a thug who had befriended Mr Sullivan, only for the friend to betray him when he needed him.
But that is where Elliott’s story and Mr Sullivan’s story part.


Elliott, 21, fresh out of university and new to London, was too frightened to speak out. Convinced he had been abandoned by everyone, he killed himself on a railway track in Bedfordshire.

Mr Sullivan nearly went the same way. But he didn’t.

Perhaps it was the added maturity that comes with being nearly ten years older than Elliott; perhaps it was the outrageous way that he was ambushed by Clarke on Monday. Perhaps it was his burning indignation at the wrongs done to his tormented friend.

Whatever it was, Mr Sullivan decided to stay silent no more.

Like Elliott – though unlike Clarke and his burly accomplices Andre Walker and Will Hanley – mild-mannered Mr Sullivan is some way short of six feet tall.

Which makes his action in revealing how Clarke and his Tory mobsters tried to browbeat him into retracting his claim that he had been bullied all the more courageous.

If the Tory party had shown the same bravery as Mr Sullivan in confronting bullies, perhaps Elliott would be alive today.


LADY ROAD TRIP: 'CRAZY CLARKE DESERVES A SAFE SEAT'
The Tory peer ennobled for backing Mark Clarke’s ‘Road Trip’ promised to help secure him a safe Parliamentary seat, it was claimed last night.

Baroness Emma Pidding told Tory activists they all ‘loved crazy’ Clarke, showering praise on his mistress and another lover at a post-Election event.

The revelation came as allies of Grant Shapps, who was forced to quit as a Government Minister for giving Clarke too much power at Tory HQ, attacked Pidding, Cabinet Minister Robert Halfon and Tory chairman Lord Feldman. ‘They are far more culpable than Grant who has been made a scapegoat,’ said one MP.

One MP said Feldman had survived because he was a friend of David Cameron’s, and Halfon had emerged unscathed as he was close to George Osborne. ‘It was Grant’s bad luck that he had no one in Downing Street who would lift a finger to defend him,’ said the MP.

Pressure mounted on Baroness Pidding last night after fresh disclosures about her close links to Clarke.

Baroness Emma Pidding (right) told Tory activists they all ‘loved crazy’ Clarke (left), showering praise on his mistress and another lover at a post-Election event
+6
Baroness Emma Pidding (right) told Tory activists they all ‘loved crazy’ Clarke (left), showering praise on his mistress and another lover at a post-Election event

A confidante of the peeress told this newspaper: ‘Emma told me that she told Mark on Election night that he deserved to be given a safe seat at the next Election and she would do all she could to get it for him.’

The Mail on Sunday has obtained a tape recording of a ‘Road Trip’ rally in July in London on the Hispaniola, a floating restaurant on the Thames at Westminster, attended by Pidding, Clarke and Halfon.

There Pidding said: ‘I want to pay tribute to Mark Clarke. We all thought he was a bit crazy but we love him so much.’

And she praised married Clarke’s mistress, India Brummitt, whom he flaunted on the ‘Road Trip’ that visited marginal constituencies before he Election, and another of his activist lovers, Ellie Vesey-Thompson. Pidding said: ‘Mark only looks this good because of the work that they’ve put in.’

Both lovers worked for Tory MP Claire Perry, David Cameron’s adviser on combating ‘the sexualisation of children’.

This newspaper revealed last week how a former female employee of Mr Halfon had an affair with another Tory MP, sparking an alleged blackmail bid by Clarke because he wanted Mr Halfon to support his bid to become a candidate.

In his speech on the Hispaniola, Mr Halfon praised ‘incredible’ Clarke before adding light-heartedly: ‘I also want to talk about romance...’

He referred to a woman who worked in his office who had fallen in love with a male Tory campaigner on ‘Road Trip.’ At the time Mr Halfon had just ended an affair with another woman on the project – but it was not disclosed until last month by this newspaper.

Baroness Pidding said last night she had backed Clarke to go back on the candidates’ list – but at the time was unaware of allegations against him.

‘On no occasion did she promise or even hint she would ensure him a safe seat,’ added a spokesman.

Clarke, a consultant with Unilever, denies any wrongdoing.