Fylde

[stb12]

Fylde

[doktorb🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️]

Well, where to start.

[doktorb🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️]

From the Times

A Tory MP is under investigation over allegations that he misused campaign funds and abused his position after making a late-night phone call saying he’d been locked up by “bad people” who were demanding thousands of pounds, The Times can reveal.

Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP for Fylde and a government trade envoy, rang an elderly local party volunteer at 3.15am in December saying he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death”. The sum, which rose to £6,500, was paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from campaign funds raised from donors.

£14,000 given by donors for use on Tory campaign activities had previously been transferred to Menzies’s personal bank account and used for his private medical expenses.

The Conservative Party has been aware of the allegations of potential fraud for more than three months and has taken no action. The MP was accused of paying for sex from a male escort in 2014.

Locked up by ‘bad people’
The phone call came in the dead of night.

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“Are you on your own?” the man said, with urgency in his voice. “I’ve got in with some bad people and they’ve got me locked in a flat and they want £5,000 to release me.”

The caller was Mark Menzies, 52, the Conservative MP for Fylde in Lancashire.

He had rung his 78-year-old former campaign manager, a woman who The Times is not naming, waking her from her sleep to ask her to hand over thousands of pounds from a bank account containing donations to the MP’s campaign.

She told Menzies that it was 3.15am and she couldn’t transfer any money without leaving the house. He became angry, allegedly telling her it was “a matter of life and death”, and demanding she instead lend him the money from her own savings, according to an account she has subsequently given to friends and the Conservative Party.

The woman refused and told the MP that she would speak to his long-time constituency office manager, Shirley Green, in the morning. A few hours later, Green stumped up the money, telling local Tories that she had cashed in her Isa to do so. By then, the sum demanded had risen to £6,500.

The source claimed that donors would have been happy to donate for this purpose but, in order to avoid disclosing details of Menzies’s health, they were not asked to. They argued that paying the medical bills helped to keep Menzies functioning as an MP and were a legitimate use of the funds.

Several years passed before Menzies again received funds from the account, in November. By then, Green had been replaced as an administrator by another local party member. The sum received amounted to £7,000.

Menzies has not repaid any of the £14,000 he has received from the business group fund — money that had been given by donors for campaigning and not for his personal expenses.

One donor, who gave a four-figure sum to the business group, said he had donated after being told by Menzies that the money would be used for campaigning. He wanted the police to investigate the alleged misuse of the funds.

Senior Tories alerted
In the aftermath of the 3.15am phone call in December, Menzies appears to have tried to keep those who knew about it onside, although this has been denied by those allies.

He asked his former campaign manager if she would run his campaign during the next general election, telling her it was “going to be a dirty election, I don’t want any gossip and scandal”. On another occasion, he gave her a large bunch of flowers.

Nevertheless, at the start of January, she reported what had happened to the Conservative chief whip, Simon Hart, detailing Menzies’s misuse of donors’ money and the alleged “abuse of privilege” in pressuring staff into handing over their own savings for his personal use.

An investigation was opened, with the case subsequently transferred from the whip’s office to Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ).

When Menzies became aware that the male staffer who picked him up had confided in a friend about what had happened, he took steps to try to prevent the allegations becoming public, allegedly saying he would “deny everything” if the press got onto him.

Sex, drugs and a drunk dog
Menzies was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and was raised by his mother after his father, who worked in the Merchant Navy, died a month before his birth.

He studied economic and social history at the University of Glasgow and worked in the retail sector at Marks & Spencer and Asda before entering politics.

The unmarried MP has never publicly confirmed his sexuality but has appeared on a list of gay MPs produced by the website Pink News.

He was first elected as MP for Fylde in 2010 as one of David Cameron’s “A-list” candidates and was earmarked for a rapid rise, quickly taking up a post as a parliamentary private secretary.

However, his ascent up the ranks was halted in 2014 when he was at the centre of a sex-for-money scandal. Rogerio Santos, 19, a Brazilian “rent boy”, told the Sunday Mirror that the MP had paid him for sex and asked him to buy an illegal drug. Santos claimed that Menzies had taken drugs on previous occasions.

Menzies, then 42, resigned as a ministerial aide but insisted that some of the allegations were untrue and claimed he would be “setting the record straight in due course”. He has not held a ministerial role since.

Three years later, Menzies was interviewed by police over bizarre accusations that he had deliberately got an acquaintance’s dog drunk and, when challenged over his actions, started a fight with the friend. The dog reportedly required emergency veterinary treatment for “intoxication” and “poisoning”.

Menzies told the press at the time that the allegations were “false and malicious” and police had dismissed the claims. A source close to the MP denied that Menzies had any involvement in the dog drinking alcohol. They claimed the dog had drunk alcohol that had been placed on the grass when the friend fell asleep, and that the friend had given alcohol to the dog on previous occasions.

More recently, Menzies’s Lancashire constituency has been abuzz with gossip about a drunken incident at a Last Night of the Proms concert featuring Katherine Jenkins, held in the grounds of Lytham Hall in August.

Menzies, who was invited to the event by the local mayor, is said to have turned up intoxicated and got into a row with other patrons after discovering that seats had not been reserved for his party within the VIP section.

[batman]

Quite extraordinary even for this weird parliament.

[doktorb🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️]

Apr 17, 2024 21:28:15 GMT batman said:

Quite extraordinary even for this weird parliament.

I'm not sure I can handle much more of this.

[stb12]

Jeremy Thorpe probably being the last political scandal to involve a dog

[finsobruce]

Apr 17, 2024 21:37:22 GMT stb12 said:

Jeremy Thorpe probably being the last political scandal to involve a dog

Inevitably, George Santos says hello.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/14/will-george-santos-dog-scandals-finally-bring-him-down

[gwynthegriff]

Apr 17, 2024 21:37:22 GMT stb12 said:

Jeremy Thorpe probably being the last political scandal to involve a dog

Even he didn't get it drunk!

[johnloony]

Apr 17, 2024 21:37:22 GMT stb12 said:

Jeremy Thorpe probably being the last political scandal to involve a dog

Google: “political scandal involving dog”

Moldova’s First Dog bites Austrian President (2023)
www.politico.eu/article/pawlitical-scandal-moldovan-presidents-dog-bites-austrian-president/

Mitt Romney drove for 12 hours with his dog on top pf the car (1983)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney_dog_incident

George Santos took $3,000 from dying dog (2016)
edition.cnn.com/2023/01/18/politics/george-santos-veteran-dog-gofundme/index.html

Did a puppy bring down President Park of South Korea?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38259068

[Devil Wincarnate]

Apr 17, 2024 21:46:06 GMT finsobruce said:

Apr 17, 2024 21:37:22 GMT stb12 said:

Jeremy Thorpe probably being the last political scandal to involve a dog

Inevitably, George Santos says hello.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/14/will-george-santos-dog-scandals-finally-bring-him-down

The new French PM was accused of scandalous behaviour with a photo of a dog.
www.lejdd.fr/politique/attal-repond-la-polemique-sur-son-chien-lassemblee-ma-famille-ma-fait-une-surprise-142006

[No Offence Alan]

Apr 17, 2024 22:14:45 GMT johnloony said:

Apr 17, 2024 21:37:22 GMT stb12 said:

Jeremy Thorpe probably being the last political scandal to involve a dog

Google: “political scandal involving dog”

Moldova’s First Dog bites Austrian President (2023)
www.politico.eu/article/pawlitical-scandal-moldovan-presidents-dog-bites-austrian-president/

Mitt Romney drove for 12 hours with his dog on top pf the car (1983)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney_dog_incident

George Santos took $3,000 from dying dog (2016)
edition.cnn.com/2023/01/18/politics/george-santos-veteran-dog-gofundme/index.html

Did a puppy bring down President Park of South Korea?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38259068

And Joe Biden's dogs are notorious for biting his security guards.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66932087

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Apr 17, 2024 22:27:19 GMT No Offence Alan said:

And Joe Biden's dogs are notorious for biting his security guards.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66932087

There was a time when mistreatment and Presidential dogs went the other way.

[carlton43]

Apr 17, 2024 22:27:19 GMT No Offence Alan said:

Apr 17, 2024 22:14:45 GMT johnloony said:

Google: “political scandal involving dog”

Moldova’s First Dog bites Austrian President (2023)
www.politico.eu/article/pawlitical-scandal-moldovan-presidents-dog-bites-austrian-president/

Mitt Romney drove for 12 hours with his dog on top pf the car (1983)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney_dog_incident

George Santos took $3,000 from dying dog (2016)
edition.cnn.com/2023/01/18/politics/george-santos-veteran-dog-gofundme/index.html

Did a puppy bring down President Park of South Korea?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38259068

And Joe Biden's dogs are notorious for biting his security guards.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66932087

Don't mock.

They are probably tired, emotional and very confused, like their owner.

[right]

And Nixon, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers_speech

[right]

He was an A lister as well

[carlton43]

Apr 18, 2024 8:12:21 GMT right said:

He was an A lister as well

I have nursed the thought that the sexual deviant penetration of the Conservative Party is so great that they do select on sexual deviancy?  Some of their youth operatives and task force leaders are absolute filth and I do not exaggerate.  They have put off thousands of potential supporters.

[cogload]

Cummings moaning about incompetent narcissistic people...🙄

[right]

Apr 18, 2024 9:29:17 GMT cogload said:

Cummings moaning about incompetent narcissistic people...🙄

So incompetent he beat your lot twice

[cogload]

Apr 18, 2024 9:42:25 GMT right said:

Apr 18, 2024 9:29:17 GMT cogload said:

Cummings moaning about incompetent narcissistic people...🙄

So incompetent he beat your lot twice

Brexit.

[gwynthegriff]

Apr 18, 2024 9:19:46 GMT carlton43 said:

Apr 18, 2024 8:12:21 GMT right said:

He was an A lister as well

I have nursed the thought that the sexual deviant penetration of the Conservative Party is so great that they do select on sexual deviancy?  Some of their youth operatives and task force leaders are absolute filth and I do not exaggerate.  They have put off thousands of potential supporters.

The character of the party has certainly changed - markedly - over the 40 years that I've seen it in close-up.

More so than the other parties though they too have their issues.