Tory MP Mark Menzies suspended over alleged misuse of campaign funds

A Tory MP has been suspended after claims he made a late night call to ask for money to pay off "bad people".

Mark Menzies "strongly" disputes the claims, but has had the whip removed amid allegations that he misused party funds and abused his position.

The MP called an elderly party volunteer saying he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of "life and death", the Times reports.

An eventual sum of £6,500 was paid to secure his release, the paper says.

The money is reported to have come out of local Conservative party funds and the party is carrying out an investigation.

According to the Times, Mr Menzies, who represents Fylde, in Lancashire, phoned his 78-year-old former campaign manager at 03:15 last December to ask for £5,000.

The sum was reportedly paid later that morning, by which time it had risen to £6,500, from the personal savings of Mr Menzies' office manager, who was reimbursed from campaign donations, the paper said.

A source close to Mr Menzies told the Times he paid the money because he was scared of what would happen if he refused, but didn't have enough in his own savings.

Mr Menzies offered to repay the funds but claimed local Tories who controlled the account the money came from said he didn't need to, a source told the paper.

Responding to the reports, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "There are obviously a lot of unanswered questions in relation to these allegations.

"Not least why it seems the Conservative Party took so long to act and whether they've reported this to the police, who it seems to me should be involved in this."

In a statement, Lancashire Police said: "We are aware of reports in the media relating to a serving Member of Parliament. No complaint has been made to the police at this stage.

"We will make contact with those impacted in due course to see whether they wish to make a complaint."

The Times also reports Mr Menzies used a total of £14,000 - in several payments stretching back four years - from campaign funds to pay his personal medical bills.

A source close to Mr Menzies disputed the claim that it had been the MP's suggestion to use campaign funds to pay his medical bills, the paper reported, but the Times says the money was not repaid.

The Conservative Party was made aware of the allegations in January, when Mr Menzies' former campaign manager reported what had happened to the chief whip, Simon Hart.

BBC News has contacted Mr Menzies for comment and he is yet to respond.

In a statement to the Times, Mr Menzies said: "I strongly dispute the allegations put to me. I have fully complied with all the rules for declarations.

"As there is an investigation ongoing I will not be commenting further."

Labour's chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: "Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party have serious questions to answer about whether funds have been misused and why no action has been taken despite the allegations reportedly being known about since January."

In a letter to Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden, Ms Dodds says The Times article "raises extremely serious questions relating to potential criminality".

She lists a series of questions she says Mr Holden needs to answer about the allegations, including: "When presented with evidence of an MP involving junior staff in paying thousands of pounds to 'bad people', did you immediately report this matter to the police? And if you have not yet, why not and will you do so today?"

Downing Street said Mr Menzies had been suspended from his unpaid role as a trade envoy to Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Argentina, following the allegations.

But the prime minister's spokesman would not comment further on a "specific case".

The spokesman said the prime minister believed there was no place for inappropriate behaviour in Parliament, and that MPs should act as role models.

Mr Menzies has been an MP since 2010 but has never been a government minister.

He has been a parliamentary aide to three Tory ministers - but resigned the last of these roles in 2014, after a newspaper reported allegations from a Brazilian male escort that he paid him for sex and asked him to buy an illegal drug.

At the time, Mr Menzies said a number of the allegations were untrue and he "looked forward to setting the record straight".

In 2017, the Mirror reported he had been quizzed by police over claims he got a dog drunk in 2015. He denied the allegation to the paper and said that he was cleared by police.

He was elected as the MP for Fylde in 2010, and he has been chosen as the Tory candidate for the seat at the next election, where he has a majority of 16,611.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "The Conservative Party is investigating allegations made regarding a member of parliament. This process is rightfully confidential."

The Conservative Party has been aware of some of the allegations against Mark Menzies for "a while", defence secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed.

"My understanding is that some further information came to light yesterday, whether that was through that [Times] story or another route I don't know, which led to the suspension of the whip," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Asked if the Conservatives had a particular problem with their MPs' behaviour, Mr Shapps replied: "In every walk of life there will be people who go off the tracks as it were, and it's important you do make sure action is taken swiftly, but also in some of these cases where perhaps mental health and other things are involved, that people are helped to a better path."

Losing the whip means an MP is, in effect, expelled from their parliamentary party and must sit as an independent unless the whip is restored.

Mr Menzies was elected in 2010, having been placed on then-Tory leader David Cameron's "A-list" of priority candidates for that year's general election.

The MP grew up in Ayrshire in Scotland, where he was raised by his mother after his father, who worked in the Merchant Navy, died the month before he was born.

He attended a private secondary school under the assisted places scheme, which offered subsidised places at fee-paying schools, before studying economic and social history at Glasgow University.

A Tory activist since the age of 16, he had a career in retail before entering politics and was a graduate trainee at supermarket chain Marks & Spencer.