Politics conservatives

Grant Shapps’ reluctance to discuss Mark Menzies wildly differed from his Angela Rayner comments

Oonagh Keating. Updated April 18th, 2024

In what is frankly not the most shocking news we’ve heard this year (or this week) yet another Tory MP has had the whip removed – this time after allegations of misuse of campaign funds.

To add the cherry to the very familiar cake, it appears that the Chief Whip may have known about the accusations since January, but only acted after the story was reported in The Times.

The allegations against the (now Independent) MP for Fylde, which he denies, are so outlandish that we once again feel very bad for the satirists.

The main accusations are –

He phoned an elderly Conservative Party volunteer at 3:15 am, asking her to send him £5,000 from party funds because ‘bad people’ had him locked in a flat.

Another party member paid him the money from their personal account because they couldn’t get access to campaign funds in the middle of the night.

He repaid that person from campaign funds.

Further money from the party was used to pay private medical bills.

To make things even more ludicrous, past allegations emerged of Menzies assaulting some strangers while drunk at a Katherine Jenkins concert, and at one time getting a dog drunk, causing it to need veterinary treatment.

There was more.

The internet ramped up the pisstaking to DEFCON 1.

Any Tory spokesperson today can be expected to answer questions on the breaking news, and Grant Shapps was no exception when he spoke to Kay Burley.

If the sight of Government ministers wishing the floor would swallow them makes you uncomfortable – look away now.

To be fair to Mr Shapps, he was equally reluctant to discuss the police investigation into the possibility that Angela Rayner might not have paid a maximum of £3,500 after making a profit on her Right-To-Buy house in 2015. Oh, wait, no – he wasn’t.

The sharp contrast between his attitude to Angela Rayner and his attitude to Mark Menzies struck some people as somewhat hypocritical.

Let’s see what they’ve been saying about it.

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Rishi Sunak should probably call the election sooner rather than later, so he still has a few MPs left to do the media rounds.

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You don’t have to be a Labour voter to appreciate this former Tory MP’s magnificent letter about Conservative attacks on Angela Rayner

Source Adam Bienkov Image Screengrab