{"id":240511,"date":"2023-11-05T23:03:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T23:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=240511"},"modified":"2023-11-05T23:03:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T23:03:10","slug":"fury-in-westminster-amid-claims-tory-party-covered-up-alleged-rapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/fury-in-westminster-amid-claims-tory-party-covered-up-alleged-rapes\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury in Westminster amid claims Tory party covered up alleged rapes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Fury in Westminster amid bombshell claims the Tory party covered up alleged rapes by a Conservative MP with Rishi Sunak under mounting pressure to launch an urgent enquiry into the claims<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00a0Oliver Dowden acknowledged party may have funded treatment for victim<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rishi Sunak was last night under mounting pressure to investigate bombshell claims that his party covered up alleged rapes by a Tory MP.<\/p>\n<p>Senior figures on all sides at Westminster demanded an urgent inquiry into shocking allegations that the Conservatives sat on the sexual assault claims for years.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Dowden even acknowledged that his party may have secretly funded medical treatment for a woman who told officials she had been raped by a Tory MP.<\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Prime Minister, who served as party chairman until June last year, said: \u2018It may be the case. I\u2019m not denying that it could be the case that those payments were made, but it\u2019s not something that I authorised.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The devastating claims are alluded to in an explosive new book from ex-minister Nadine Dorries and were first reported by The Mail on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper revealed yesterday that former Tory chairman Jake Berry and former chief whip Wendy Morton wrote to the\u00a0police last year urging them to investigate after learning of the alleged cover-up.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/22\/77436733-12713415-image-a-31_1699224396998.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Rishi Sunak has come under pressure from senior Tories to launch an urgent investigation of covered up rapes by a sitting MP<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/21\/77434843-12713415-image-a-1_1699220586446.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, who was party chairman until June last year, acknowledged that the party may have secretly funded treatment for the victim<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/21\/77434853-12713415-image-a-2_1699220590699.jpg\" height=\"436\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mr Dowden said he couldn&#8217;t deny that the payments were made but insisted they were not authorised by him<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/21\/77434855-12713415-image-a-5_1699220601856.jpg\" height=\"562\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The devastating claims relating to an alleged serial rapist Tory MP were revealed in Nadine Dorries&#8217; new book\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/21\/77434859-12713415-image-a-6_1699220605648.jpg\" height=\"529\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The unnamed Conservative was given the codename &#8216;X&#8217; in the book, which suggested the party would be at &#8216;severe&#8217; risk of prosecution if the case ended up in court<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/21\/77434661-12713415-image-a-3_1699220594147.jpg\" height=\"843\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ms Dorries&#8217; explosive claims were first published in an exert of her book in the Mail on Sunday<\/p>\n<p>Last night there was mounting pressure for an inquiry into the scandal.<\/p>\n<p>Former Cabinet minister David Davis said the claims were so serious they should be investigated by the police, who are already looking into the rape allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Davis said there was \u2018no argument in the world that can support covering up such a thing, if it\u2019s true\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Obviously, covering up a case like that is a criminal offence in its own right,\u2019 he told GB News yesterday. \u2018So it\u2019s probably a matter for the police now.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Anneliese Dodds, the Labour Party chairman, said last night: \u2018These allegations are deeply concerning and extremely serious. It is of the utmost importance that this is thoroughly investigated by the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Failure to do so would be a failure of leadership and a dereliction of duty.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: \u2018These reports are deeply disturbing to read. Nobody is above the law or reprimand for serious crimes such as those reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018For that reason, the Prime Minister and Conservative Party chairman must launch an investigation into this. The British public would expect something as serious as this to be investigated.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Ms Chamberlain also called for assurances that measures have been put in place to \u2018protect staff and constituents\u2019 from the alleged offender.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, which is being serialised by the Mail, Ms Dorries recounted how a Conservative colleague told her that a woman reported to party chiefs that she had been raped by an MP and \u2018no action was taken by the party\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The former culture secretary quoted her source as saying: \u2018An MP gave a young female a date rape drug; the next thing she knew was she woke in a country hotel the following morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He wanted her out of the room because, he told her, he had visitors coming for breakfast.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The woman is said to have been encouraged to go to the police but was \u2018scared of him and scared of it coming out\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/22\/77435185-12713415-image-m-46_1699224501492.jpg\" height=\"471\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/22\/77435169-12713415-image-m-48_1699224519940.jpg\" height=\"471\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>In their letter to the police, Tory MPs Jake Berry and Wendy Morton said the MP may have had as many as five victims who had been \u2018subject to a range of offences, including multiple rapes\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/21\/77434957-12713415-image-a-7_1699220686592.jpg\" height=\"1056\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former Cabinet minister David Davis said the claims were so serious they should be investigated by the police, who are already looking into the rape allegations<\/p>\n<p>A second complaint was made by a \u2018vulnerable\u2019 woman who was also too frightened to go to the police with her story.<\/p>\n<p>When her mental health declined party lawyers are said to have organised for her to have treatment funded by the Tories.<\/p>\n<p>In their letter to the police, Mr Berry and Ms Morton said the Tory MP may have had as many as five victims who had been \u2018subject to a range of offences, including multiple rapes\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>They said the matter had been \u2018ongoing for over two years\u2019, adding: \u2018The failure of others to act has enabled X to continue to offend and to victimise women.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The pair also ordered an internal investigation into the \u2018piecemeal\u2019 handling of the case, which warned that the party itself could be \u2018severely at risk of prosecution\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Although officials are understood to have encouraged the women to report their claims to police, the party itself did not refer the matter to detectives until Mr Berry became involved. The MP involved cannot be named because he is now the subject of a live police investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Dowden had a series of bruising broadcast interviews over the handling of the issue yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>He told Times Radio that he had insisted on a \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 approach to allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as party chairman. \u2018It wasn\u2019t something that crossed my desk as chairman of the Conservative Party,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It may be the case. I\u2019m not denying that it could be the case that those payments were made, but it\u2019s not something that I authorised &#8230; as chairman of the Conservative party.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I want to be equally clear on my part. First of all, any allegations I received about sexual misconduct, I was always totally clear should be taken to the police.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018And secondly, I was totally clear, both as a party and as a government, that we have zero tolerance whatsoever for this kind of conduct. Full stop.\u2019 In a separate interview with GB News, the Deputy PM said he couldn\u2019t say \u2018for certain\u2019 whether the party had paid for private medical treatment for an alleged victim \u2018simply because I don\u2019t know the name of the person whose fees are meant to have been paid\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>But he denied signing off any payments of this kind.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/05\/22\/77434673-12713415-image-m-8_1699221658288.jpg\" height=\"969\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The bombshell claims were revealed in Dorries book The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, out on November 9<\/p>\n<p>One former Cabinet minister said it was hard to believe Mr Dowden could have had no knowledge of the incident.<\/p>\n<p>The source said: \u2018The party was paying the medical fees of an alleged rape victim \u2013 that is basically accepting liability \u2013 but had not gone to the police. It seems incredible that the chairman of an organisation in that situation would not have known.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>An ally of Mr Dowden last night said that the structuring of the party at the time meant that he had \u2018no involvement\u2019 with the financial side.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He was not in charge of the party finances,\u2019 the friend said. \u2018It was one of the frustrations of his time as party chairman that there was a lot going on that he didn\u2019t know about.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The source said that the payment of medical fees may even have been signed off after Mr Dowden left office.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative Central Office declined to comment last night.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12713415\/Fury-Westminster-amid-bombshell-claims-Tory-party-covered-alleged-rapes-Conservative-MP-Rishi-Sunak-mounting-pressure-launch-urgent-enquiry-claims.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fury in Westminster amid bombshell claims the Tory party covered up alleged rapes by a Conservative MP with Rishi Sunak under mounting pressure to launch an urgent enquiry into the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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