Elliott Johnson death: Coroner rejects request for inquest to examine evidence of bullying by Tory party
In a letter writtten in the days before his suspected suicide, Elliott Johnson named both Mark Clarke and Andre Walker
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A coroner has rejected the request by the parents of the young Conservative activist Elliott Johnson for the inquest into his death on railway tracks to consider evidence of alleged bullying by members of the party.
Mark Clarke, the failed parliamentary candidate and organiser at the heart of the Tory bullying scandal, will not be called as a witness.
Lawyers acting for Ray and Alison Johnson had argued at a hearing on 2 March that human rights law obliged Tom Osborne, the senior coroner for Bedfordshire, to widen the scope of the inquest to include allegations their son made in notes he left before his death last September.
But in his ruling, the coroner said the inquest, scheduled for 31 March, will focus on the circumstances of the death itself, and not the culture of bullying described by Elliott, 21, and dozens of other activists.
“This was on the face of it a dispute between two individuals who were not connected apart from fact that they shared the same political affiliation,” Mr Osborne ruled.
“The purpose [of the inquest] is not to determine whether the allegations of bullying set out in the letters left by Mr Johnson were true. The purpose of an inquest is not to identify individual fault on the part of those involved. Indeed it is expressly not concerned with apportioning blame.”
Mr Osborne said he would consider the letters Mr Johnson wrote, in which he accused Mr Clarke of bullying and a journalist Andre Walker of betrayal, as well as the circumstances of his dismissal from the right-wing think tank Conservative Way Forward (CWF) shortly before his death.
But he said it was “difficult to see” what calling Mr Clarke and Mr Walker as witnesses “could add to the inquest, save for to deny any bullying.”
Ray Johnson said: “I’m pleased that the Coroner has decided to investigate Elliott’s dismissal by CWF. It’s good the Coroner recognises the link between the dismissal and Mark Clarke. This is a really important step forward for the family.
“The Coroner says it is hard to see at this stage what the point would be in calling Mark Clarke and Andre Walker as witnesses. He says they would simply deny the bullying – I am not sure why he says that.”
Heather Williams QC, acting for the Johnsons, had argued that the treatment their son was subjected to by Mr Clarke and others qualified as “degrading and inhuman” under European human rights law, and that there was a precedent for evidence of such treatment to be considered in an inquest.
Mr Clarke and Mr Walker have denied any wrongdoing. Allegations against them and of a wider culture within the Conservative Party’s activist ranks, are part of an ongoing independent inquiry commissioned by the party.
Accusations that the Tory HQ knew about complaints about Mr Clarke’s behaviour as early as 2008 led former co-chairman Grant Shapps to resign from the government in November.