09/12/2015

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:00:09. > :00:13.Hello it's Wednesday, it's 9.15, I'm Victoria Derbyshire,

:00:14. > :00:19.Coming up - the father of a young Conservative activist

:00:20. > :00:22.who took his own life after claiming he had been bullied by a senior

:00:23. > :00:25.member of the party's youth wing tells us police should

:00:26. > :00:27.widen their inquiry and calls again for the co-chairman of the party

:00:28. > :00:38.It is quite clear to me that David Cameron is protecting his friends.

:00:39. > :00:42.He should consider where his loyalty should be. It should not be to his

:00:43. > :00:45.friends, it should be to justice. Also today - we'll talk exclusively

:00:46. > :00:48.to the man who has made a hate crime complaint to the police

:00:49. > :00:50.about Tyson Fury's alleged anti-gay rant after watching a discussion

:00:51. > :01:00.about it on this programme. I did not say I have got a problem

:01:01. > :01:06.with homosexuals or abortionists or paedophiles. I did not say I am

:01:07. > :01:09.against it. I just said what I am taught in Scriptures.

:01:10. > :01:12.And residents in storm-hit Cumbria are warned of more heavy

:01:13. > :01:19.We'll speak live to some of those affected.

:01:20. > :01:40.We're on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel until 11 this morning.

:01:41. > :01:44.We'll talk later about the famous pride of lions featured on the BBC

:01:45. > :01:49.wildlife programme Big Cat Diary that have allegedly been poisoned.

:01:50. > :01:51.Our correspondent has just reached the Masai Mara game reserve.

:01:52. > :01:55.We'll talk to him before the end of the programme.

:01:56. > :01:58.As always, we're keen to hear from you on all the subjects

:01:59. > :02:01.we are talking about this morning - do get in touch.

:02:02. > :02:03.Texts will be charged at the standard messaging rate.

:02:04. > :02:06.And you can watch our programme and find all our best interviews

:02:07. > :02:12.on our programme page - bbc.co.uk/Victoria.

:02:13. > :02:17.He was found dead by a railway track in September.

:02:18. > :02:22.He had been hit by a train, having apparently taken

:02:23. > :02:33.off his shoes, laid down on a towel and waited for a train.

:02:34. > :02:35.After his death his mother and father found three suicide notes

:02:36. > :02:37.- one to his parents, another

:02:38. > :02:40.to friends and a third was titled to his "bullies and betrayers".

:02:41. > :02:42.Elliot Johnson claimed he had been bullied by the party's youth

:02:43. > :02:48.Those claims have rocked the party with further allegations

:02:49. > :02:51.of bullying, harassment and blackmail by Mark Clarke

:02:52. > :02:57.continuing to emerge over the last few months.

:02:58. > :03:03.The key question is who knew what when.

:03:04. > :03:05.This morning the man who is effectively in charge

:03:06. > :03:08.of running the party, Lord Feldman, is facing claims he was first told

:03:09. > :03:12.about the bullying five years ago, but he insists he first he heard

:03:13. > :03:22.Our political guru Norman Smith is here.

:03:23. > :03:30.This story is about what exactly? Well, this is a story about who knew

:03:31. > :03:33.what when in the highest reaches of the Conservative Party. It is a

:03:34. > :03:37.story about whether the Conservative Party failed in its duty of care to

:03:38. > :03:42.some of its youngest supporters. Some of them only 16 or 17. It is a

:03:43. > :03:46.story about the way young people can be treated in the brutal world of

:03:47. > :03:56.Westminster. The story begins last year in March, when a vibrant new

:03:57. > :04:01.Tory youth campaign was set up called Road Trip.

:04:02. > :04:04.They are bused in for the day and promised a "great time",

:04:05. > :04:07.curry and a free bar into the night as reward for a hard

:04:08. > :04:20.But it all came to a shuddering halt with the death of Elliott Johnson.

:04:21. > :04:32.Amid claims of bullying and abuse and sexual harassment. On the 18th

:04:33. > :04:46.of November this year, the man who set up ten Road Trip, Lancelot, was

:04:47. > :04:50.booted out of the party for life. He had previously been known as Tatler

:04:51. > :04:56.Tory, because Tatler magazine had big team up as a high-flyer. He was

:04:57. > :05:04.booted out of the party. One leek waiter, on the 27th of November this

:05:05. > :05:08.year, Fijalek's father went public with his concerns. This is when this

:05:09. > :05:13.story went nuclear. He called it a dry rot within the Conservative

:05:14. > :05:17.Party, where the party hierarchy turned a blind eye to what was going

:05:18. > :05:21.on in the youth wing because they thought they were achieving results.

:05:22. > :05:26.They did not want to know. And he dismissed the internal inquiry which

:05:27. > :05:29.had been set up by the Conservative Party as a cover-up. He said it was

:05:30. > :05:32.not acceptable to have party officials investigating themselves.

:05:33. > :05:36.He questioned whether senior figures in the party were fit to govern if

:05:37. > :05:44.this was how they treated his son's death. We now know that something

:05:45. > :05:49.like 40 people have come forward to give evidence to this inquiry. So,

:05:50. > :05:53.the implication is that there are and awful lot of people who might

:05:54. > :05:57.have been potential victims of this sort of bullying. And this goes to

:05:58. > :06:03.the top of the Tory party? It doesn't. It raises questions about

:06:04. > :06:08.the position of the current chairman, Siddique, and also the

:06:09. > :06:13.then chairman Grant Shapps. If we go to the day after Kirmond went

:06:14. > :06:20.public, on the 28th of November, Grant Shapps suddenly resigns. He

:06:21. > :06:24.was the man who brought Lancelot into the Tory party and encouraged

:06:25. > :06:27.this sort of youth campaign. He resigned, saying, the buck stops

:06:28. > :06:34.with me. He took full responsibility. But that did not end

:06:35. > :06:37.it. Questions were then raised about the current chairman Siddique and

:06:38. > :06:40.what he knew and why he did not do anything. Two days later, on the

:06:41. > :06:48.30th of November, he issued an unequivocal statement saying he was

:06:49. > :06:52.completely unaware of these claims. But this becomes politically

:06:53. > :06:55.complicated. Siddique is a very close friend of the Prime Minister.

:06:56. > 0:00:01They go back to