Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Sunak says allegation a Tory MP is serial rapist is ‘very serious’

06 Nov 2023 3 minute read
Photo Henry Nicholls/PA Wire

Rishi Sunak has described allegations that a Tory MP committed a series of rapes as “very serious” as he insisted his party’s complaints procedures are “robust”.

The Prime Minister urged anyone with evidence of criminal acts to go to the police on Monday amid calls for an investigation into the party’s handling of the claims.

Sir Jake Berry, a former Tory Party chairman, is said to have warned the police that an internal “failure” to act on allegations allowed the unnamed MP to “continue to offend”.

Speaking on a visit to Bacton Gas Terminal in Norfolk, the Prime Minister told broadcasters: “These are very serious, anonymous allegations.

“It may be that they allude to something that is already the subject of a live police investigation, so I hope you understand it wouldn’t be right for me to comment on that further specifically.

“More broadly the Conservative Party has robust independent complaint procedures in place, but I would say to anybody who has information or evidence about any criminal acts to of course talk to police, that’s the right course of action.”

Opposition parties have urged the Conservatives to investigate the allegations over the unidentified MP, who was able to continue in their role in Parliament.

Targeted

According to a copy of a letter obtained by the Mail On Sunday, Sir Jake wrote to police saying that the MP targeted as many as five people with little to no consequence, with some of the allegations including multiple rapes.

The former party chairman said that the “failure of others to act has enabled” the MP to “continue to offend and to victimise women”.

It is alleged that he found out about the allegations when he discovered the Conservatives had covered the cost of treatment for one of the complainants at a private hospital.

Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds has called the allegations “deeply concerning and extremely serious”, as she urged the Tories to investigate.

Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain urged Mr Sunak to launch an investigation over the “deeply disturbing” claims.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, also a former Tory chairman, told broadcasters he was not aware of the allegations and did not know who the alleged culprit was.

He told the BBC: “I don’t recognise in any form the idea that we covered up.”

But Mr Sunak’s deputy later said he could not rule out that the party might have paid for treatment for an alleged victim.

He told Times Radio: “I’m not denying that it could be the case that those payments were made, but it is not something that I authorised or (was) part of as chairman of the Conservative Party.”

It was reported that Sir Jake wrote the letter, co-signed by former chief whip Wendy Morton, shortly after leaving the chairman’s job in October 2022.


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
11 months ago

They are selling us the idea that nobody knows who the ALLEGED culprit is. I’m not buying it.

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
11 months ago

It seems within the Conservative party there’s a culture of abuse that follows it around like a bad smell. Westminster politics is rotten to its filthy core. Stay in that environment long enough even a saint would be tainted by association.

Jeff
Jeff
11 months ago

Now they march down to the Yard and hand over everything they know and the police involved. We know their internal process is not what they believe.

Unrelated. Have they let slip yet which MP called the whips to get help when he was found somewhere he should not have been after wakening up and his clothes missing?

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.