Are Zionists at the heart of the Tory bullying scandal?

A political scandal which has rocked the British government, forcing the resignation of a Conservative minister, also reveals the powerful influence of pro-Israel Zionists at play.

Grant Shapps has already quit his post of international development minister after damning evidence emerged of bullying following the death of a young political activist. It seems that the former Conservative Party chair failed to act over allegations of bullying, sexual harassment, drug taking and the blackmailing of some MPs, according to media reports. The focus of the allegations is Mark Clarke, who was appointed by Shapps as the director of the Road Trip election campaign last year. The appointment is said by some media reports “to have baffled many in the party.”

While Middle East political observers may regard the fall out as nothing more than a domestic spat, they couldn’t be more wrong, because snippets of information are beginning to come out which reveal the dirty tricks of Zionist influences at the heart of David Cameron’s troubled government.

Former Cabinet minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, once regarded as the most powerful Muslim figure in British politics, was targeted ruthlessly by Tory bullies in an unprecedented, vindictive campaign to have her marginalised. Despite standing up to the bullies, Warsi’s pleas for back-up and help were ignored by Shapps, leaving her even more isolated.

The campaign against her was unleashed after she resigned from the British government during the height of last year’s Israeli military offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip. Warsi was almost immediately catapulted into political oblivion after quitting her Cabinet post over the Conservative-led coalition government’s foreign policy on Palestine and its refusal to condemn Israeli actions during the 51 day war in which hundreds of Palestinian children and their mothers were killed.

In her resignation letter Warsi wrote: “I always said that long after life in politics I must be able to live with myself for the decisions I took or the decisions I supported. By staying in Government at this time I do not feel I can be sure of that.”

Her principled stand was explained further in an interview with award-winning journalist Mehdi Hassan where she explained: “The British government can only play a constructive role in solving the Middle East crisis if it is an honest broker, and at the moment I do not think it is.”

At the time of her resignation she tweeted: “With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza.”

With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza

— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) August 5, 2014

As far as political observers were concerned, Sayeeda Warsi had virtually withdrawn from British politics but a series of tweets at the centre of the bullying storm which led to Shapps’ resignation tells a different story.

The original bullying claims were made in a letter penned by Elliott Johnson before the young Conservative took his own life. They centre on the Tory Party’s youth wing and, in particular, senior campaign activist Mark Clarke. While Clarke denies any accusations of wrongdoing it has now emerged that Warsi was also targeted by him on social networks when he implied that she was anti-Semitic following her principled resignation over Israel’s war on Gaza.

The two had clashed previously during Clarke’s failed 2010 General Election campaign when he stood as a candidate in Tooting against Labour’s Sadiq Khan. After that election, as the then Conservative Party chair, Warsi established a candidates’ committee to rule on whether problematic candidates could stand again for the party. Clarke was removed from the candidate list.

“During my time as chairman, Mark Clarke was never involved in any initiative that I was involved in, or in any campaigning. He was effectively persona non grata as far as I was concerned,” says Warsi in a Guardian newspaper report on the scandal. “He was always a disaster waiting to happen, and this was common knowledge.”

In January this year the chairman of a local Conservative Party branch tweeted that Warsi had made, “A diatribe against Israel and a pro-Hamas speech.” The tweet was picked up by Clarke, who then went one step further and tweeted: “So @SayeedaWarsi is now slagging off the Jewish Tory party chairman… who was offended by her speech.”

Warsi’s response to Clarke on Twitter was short and to the point: “Bullying for silence”

It appears that Clarke continued trolling Warsi on social media and, clearly exasperated, in March she responded by asking: “[Is this] just one of your regular pathetic slurs!” On another occasion she wrote: “And a final word of advice @MrMarkClarke, to make your mark in politics focus on being principled rather than being a poodle :-)”

By this time Warsi had already written to Grant Shapps, who had replaced her as Conservative chair in 2012, complaining about Clarke’s behaviour. “I raised my own concerns about Clarke with Grant Shapps and never received a satisfactory response,” she claims.

Warsi wrote and told Shapps about the online bullying and the defamatory remarks Clarke had made accusing her of being anti-Semitic: “It’s worth noting that until this moment neither I nor anyone else involved was aware of [the local party chairman’s] religion nor had any reference been made to ethnicity, race, religion. As a result of the above I received a number of abusive messages including accusations of antisemitism.” She concluded: “I look forward to hearing from you what action you intend to take against both [the local chairman] and Mr Clarke.” Anyone who has ever made public their support for the people of Palestine will be able to empathise with Baroness Warsi over being accused of anti-Semitism; it is a common tactic of the Zionist, pro-Israel lobby.

Shapps ignored her letter for two months. It was only when the leader of the House of Lords, Lady Stowell, intervened that Shapps finally acknowledged Warsi’s letter. “I was sorry to hear from Tina [Stowell] that you’d not received a reply to your letter from earlier this year and wanted to get back to you, I appreciate you getting in touch and making me aware of the situation,” he wrote. “I will be sure to raise this with the relevant individuals at [Conservative Central HQ] and look into the issue.” That was the first and last she heard about her complaint.

Quite why Grant Shapps seems determined to protect Mark Clarke remains to be seen but it is a question to which Baroness Warsi and the parents of Elliott Johnson want an answer. It will also be interesting to see if any more evidence of Zionist influence leaks out. In the meantime, Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to hold a full inquiry into the bullying allegations made by Johnson, Warsi and others who have also complained about the hectoring culture within the ranks of the Conservative Party. Let’s hope that he doesn’t bottle it, for the sake of Elliott Johnson’s parents and everyone else keen to remove rotten apples from the core of British politics.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.