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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been urged to commission an investigation into claims the Conservative Party failed to properly deal with allegations of rape against one of its MPs.<\/p>\n
It comes after it was reported that Sir Jake Berry, a former Conservative Party chairman, told police that an internal \u201cfailure\u201d to act on allegations of rape allowed an unnamed MP to \u201ccontinue to offend\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to a copy of a letter obtained by the Mail On Sunday (MoS), Sir Jake told police he found out about the alleged assaults when he discovered the Tories had covered the cost of treatment for one of the supposed victims at a private hospital.<\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain told the Daily Mail: \u201cThese reports are deeply disturbing to read.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody is above the law or reprimand for serious crimes such as those reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor that reason, the Prime Minister and Conservative Party chairman must launch an investigation into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anneliese Dodds, the Labour Party chairwoman, told the newspaper: \u201cThese allegations are deeply concerning and extremely serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is of the utmost importance that this is thoroughly investigated by the Conservative Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He told the BBC on Sunday: \u201cI don\u2019t recognise in any form the idea that we covered up.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr Sunak\u2019s deputy later said he could not rule out that the party might have paid for treatment for an alleged victim.<\/p>\n
He told Times Radio: \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Jake\u2019s letter, seen by the MoS, suggests that an unnamed MP had assaulted as many as five people with little to no consequence, with some allegations including several claims of rape.<\/p>\n
The MP has not been named but, as per the letter, was able to continue in their role in Parliament after the rapes and assaults occurred.<\/p>\n
Sir Jake was party chairman during Liz Truss\u2019s brief tenure as Tory leader and prime minister last year.<\/p>\n
It is reported Sir Jake, whose office has been contacted by the PA news agency for comment, wrote the letter shortly after leaving the chairman\u2019s job in October 2022.<\/p>\n
The MoS published extracts from the letter, which Sir Jake and former chief whip Wendy Morton reportedly co-signed.<\/p>\n
It was reportedly sent to police stating that the pair became aware of a series of allegations against an MP, referred to as X, when they took up their new roles within the party.<\/p>\n
An excerpt from the letter reads: \u201cThere may have been five victims of X \u2014 who have been subject to a range of offences including multiple rapes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter adds that the \u201cfailure of others to act has enabled X to continue to offend\u201d, and the claims of rape and assault had been going on for more than two years.<\/p>\n
Veteran Conservative MP and former Brexit secretary David Davis told GB News that any cover up of rape claims would be a \u201ccriminal offence in its own right\u201d and would be a \u201cmatter for the police\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Conservative Party said it would not be commenting.<\/p>\n
Mr Dowden told broadcasters the allegations were \u201cvery serious\u201d and that the party \u201ctakes them exceptionally seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been urged to commission an investigation into claims the Conservative Party failed to properly deal with allegations of rape against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n