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.
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 lightheartedly: ‘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.