The Tories are demanding that Labour release the Falkirk report again, yet when it comes to their own internal reports about bad behaviour, they are curiously silent. Despite calling in an independent investigator to get to the bottom of why thousands of pounds were were missing from 2010 campaign funds in Wandsworth, and that report being used as the basis to boot out a leading party member from an elected position, they are still refusing to publish it. The Tories are keeping the report under lock and key with those allowed to see it being given a hard copy to read under supervision. This has allowed allies of the former agent to try and spin events…

Justine Greening’s Association Chairman Mark Elliott lost his rag with Guido on the phone last night, frothing about “malicious lies spread by the press” and then claimed the “the amounts alleged are totally spurious”. He then hung up. Yet Elliott, a close ally of both Greening and Morritt,  would have read the report. Perhaps he missed the conclusion about the association’s old agent:

“some of the media accusations do have substance and that the actions of Rob Morritt during his time as agent have brought the Wandsworth Conservative Group and potentially the wider party into disrepute. From not banking cash receipts to the use of the Addison Lee account for private journeys, to withdrawing cash for expenses without adequate supporting documentation, to taking reconciled salary top ups, whilst justified in his own mind, was from a professional and probity perspective totally unacceptable and fell well short of what the Group could expect from a trained agent.”

It concludes that Morritt  “fell short of providing sufficient, acceptable detail to ensure that he did not gain financial advantage during his employment with the Wandsworth Group.” There’s a word for that.

All this was exposed internally in 2010. Why are senior Tories – from Cabinet level down – still defending or ignoring this?