A Conservative activist at the centre of allegations of bullying young activists was appointed to a key role in the party's general election campaign despite warnings of his past record of "aggressive" conduct, an inquiry has found.
Law firm Clifford Chance found complaints were made about the conduct of so-called "Tatler Tory" Mark Clarke on seven occasions before the party finally mounted an investigation into his behaviour.
The report said the party's then co-chairmen Lord Feldman and Grant Shapps had not been made aware of the allegations until August last year when an internal party inquiry was launched.
It found Mr Shapps had seen an internal party report which referred to Mr Clarke's past "aggressive and bullying conduct" when he appointed him to head up a Conservative youth campaign drive.
The law firm was brought in to investigate last December, three months after the suicide of a young activist Elliott Johnson, whose complaint against Mr Clarke finally triggered the internal investigation.
In response, the party said it was establishing new procedures for handling complaints by volunteers, including a dedicated hotline and training for relevant party employees.
Party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin said there could be "no place for bullying behaviour" in the party.
"The actions we are taking today will continue to ensure that volunteers, who are so vital to our party, can flourish," he said
Mr Clarke, who has always denied the allegations against him, was appointed by Mr Shapps to lead the party's RoadTrip campaign - bussing young activists around the country in support of Conservative candidates - in June 2014.
The report said 13 individuals had been identified who were alleged to have been victims of bullying and harassment or other "inappropriate conduct" by Mr Clarke between January 2014 and August 2015.
In six cases, it was unclear whether any complaint had been made to Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) while in seven it was "debatable" whether the alleged conduct amounted to bullying, harassment or other inappropriate behaviour.
However, in four instances it was clear the claims did amount to bullying, harassment or inappropriate behaviour towards young party members and that they had been reported to CCHQ.
Although Mr Shapps's chief of staff Paul Abbott was aware of the allegations, they were not referred to the secretary of the Conservative Party Board's disciplinary sub-committee, Stephen Phillips, and no investigation was carried out.
Mr Abbott did inform Mr Phillips of a complaint about the "general conduct" of people on RoadTrip events - including allegations of sexual assault involving two people unconnected with Mr Clarke - but again there was no investigation as it proved impossible to arrange a meeting with the complainant.
In addition, the report said six specific allegations of "sexually inappropriate behaviour" by Mr Clarke had been identified, including claims that he had propositioned activists or tried to kiss them - but in five cases they were not reported to CCHQ at the time.
In the sixth case, a whistleblower claimed to have lodged a complaint with CCHQ but after no evidence could be found to support that claim the activist concerned stated they wished to withdraw their evidence.
The report also disclosed that when Mr Shapps and Mr Abbott interviewed Mr Clarke to head up RoadTrip they had been aware of a confidential file held by CCHQ from the time he was a Tory candidate in the 2010 general election which included reports of "aggressive and bullying conduct" towards his campaign director as well as "negative media coverage" about his activities.
Mr Shapps said he had spent "about ten minutes" reviewing the file and during the course of the interview told Mr Clarke that it made "very chequered reading".
"Mr Clarke claimed that he had settled down and wanted a second chance to get back on the candidates list," the report said.
"Mr Abbott believed him and Mr Shapps thought he had presented a very compelling case. His work on RoadTrip was discussed as a means of proving himself in this regard."
Mr Clarke refused to be interviewed by Clifford Chance, although his solicitors told the inquiry he was continuing to co-operate with the police and coroner investigating Mr Johnson's death.
"The police investigation into Elliott Johnson's death and other inquiries are ongoing, and it is not appropriate to respond to allegations until the end of those processes," the solicitors said.
"However, the allegations made against Mr Clarke in the Clifford Chance report are wholly untrue and unsubstantiated. Many are based on totally fabricated media reports. All these allegations are vehemently denied."
Mr Johnson's parents also informed Clifford Chance through their solicitors that they did not wish to participate in the inquiry as it did not appear to be "independent or transparent".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here