Mark Clarke

Bertie Clarke came to Britain in 1939 to play cricket against England, but could not return home because of the Outbreak of World War II; he then trained as a general practitioner, and had a daughter, Madeline, who would become Mark's mother.

Mark's parents, Denis and Madeline, split up when Mark was young.

He has described his father as being absent.

His upbringing included time on the Ivybridge estate in Isleworth, Hounslow, West London.

Clarke was schooled at London's Dulwich College after achieving a government assisted places position.

Mark Clarke (born June 1977) is a British former Conservative Party parliamentary candidate who was director of the now-defunct Young Britons' Foundation, as well as a chairman of (also now-defunct) Conservative Future, and ex-director of the Road Trip electioneering organisation (disbanded in 2015) that bussed Conservative party activists to marginal seats during the 2015 general election campaign.

Clarke was born in June 1977, to Madeline Clarke and Denis Ogden.

He is a great nephew of Dominica's first female prime minister, Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, and a grandson of Bertie Clarke, a Barbados-born member of the West Indies Cricket Team.

Clarke has been an active Conservative Party campaigner since at least 1997 where he was seen in John Major's entourage as the former prime minister gave his speech to concede defeat to Tony Blair after a landslide defeat.

Afterwards, he studied Ancient and Modern History at Durham University, graduating in 1999.

Facing issues with conventional employment as a result of public image and perception, Clarke, who himself studied ancient and modern history at Durham, started a children's history podcast behind the veil of his two daughters, Sophie and Ellie (with Clarke credited as "Daddy").

Mark Clarke is listed as the only director for the business.

History Storytime was launched in 2018, following the sexual harassment case made against him at previous employer Unilever earlier in the year, but the limited company was dissolved on 5 April 2022.

He would later become the elected chairman of Conservative Future between 2006 and 2008 and he also came to prominence in the Young Britons' Foundation as their director of outreach, an organisation headed by Donal Blaney at the time.

He would also assume the nickname "Tatler Tory" after being tipped as a future Cabinet Minister by Tatler magazine.

In 2010, Clarke stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Tooting, losing to the Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan by 2,524 votes.

During the campaign, an article in The Daily Mirror reported allegations, which Clarke denied, from Naaz Coker, chairman of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, which said Clarke had "made 'inaccurate' and 'unfounded' claims to 'undermine' patients' confidence in their local health service."

During this election campaign, it was alleged that Clarke had an affair with an MP's staff member, India Brummitt, an allegation that he denied.

Clarke independently established the Road Trip campaigning group, which later received the endorsement of Conservative Campaign Headquarters and then Party Chairman Grant Shapps MP.

Clarke was suspended from the party on 24 September 2015, following the suicide of Conservative activist Elliott Johnson who had claimed that Clarke had bullied him.

A series of accusations subsequently appeared in national newspapers about Clarke's alleged misconduct.

In November 2015 he was expelled and banned for life from representing or joining the Conservative Party.

His alleged misconduct within the Conservative Party also led to national newspaper coverage about the extent to which senior figures in the party knew about complaints regarding his actions that subsequently led to the resignation of Grant Shapps as a government minister.

In the years from his graduation up to 2015, Clarke used his university training to engage in consulting positions related to marketing, a period that included work with Procter and Gamble, Mars, Accenture, and Unilever, and a period of 4 years residence in Switzerland.

In 2015, he was reported to be a senior marketing analyst at Unilever, but left the company in March 2018 after claims of sexual harassment were made against him.

He was the subject of a formal investigation by Unilever, but resigned before the investigation was concluded.

It featured predominantly in the 2015 General Election and organised bus-loads of predominantly young party members to campaign in key marginal seats.

Some local Conservatives regarded Road Trip assistance as "chaotic and useless".

When the accusations of serious misconduct during the Road Trip sessions began to appear in the national media in September 2015, Road Trip activity was suspended and later formally disbanded.

Clarke has repeatedly denied allegations against him of misconduct and criminal activity that contributed to widespread national media coverage after the death of Elliott Johnson.

Most of the national media which covered the stories surrounding Johnson's death, and subsequent stories of misconduct and criminal activity happening during the Road Trip campaign, have quoted either directly or indirectly Clarke's rebuttal that all allegations against him are false:"'I strongly refute [sic] any suggestion of bullying, harassment, blackmail, or intended/attempted blackmail.'" In the context of reporting by Rajeev Syal, Jamie Grierson, and Rowena Mason of The Guardian on the sexual harassment and assault allegations, Clarke is reported as well to have "vigorously denied any wrongdoing."

Nevertheless, reputable media outlets continued to publish allegations centred on Clarke's activities, which included:

After the suicide of Conservative Party activist Elliott Johnson, quick measures were enacted to close down the activities of organisations and people who were alleged to have failed in their duty of care of young activists or were implicated in the bullying of them.

The first measure was to immediately ban some activists, including Clarke and his associate Andre Walker, from attending the annual Conservative Party Conference in 2015.

Further to this, it was reported on 20 November 2015 that the entire National Executive Committee of Conservative Future had been suspended over some scandals which overlapped with allegations of criminal activity occurring on Road Trip and allegedly perpetrated by Clarke.

Aside from the interrelationship between Conservative Future activists and Road Trip activities, the most prominent of the allegations was that of Alexandra Paterson, the Conservative Future chairman, and her alleged affair with Robert Halfon MP.

In this episode it was alleged that Clarke had orchestrated a plot to record documentary evidence of Paterson and Halfon having an affair.

Halfon is reported to have discovered an attempt to blackmail him and reported the news to Downing Street.

With the Tatler Tory scandal seemingly pervading into more senior ranks of the Conservative Party it was deemed that the National Executive of Conservative Future had not delivered a reasonable duty of care to its members nor acted with propriety.

The Conservative Future National Executive Committee was suspended and the Party installed Baroness Chisolm of Owlpen and Chloe Smith MP, two senior Party officials, to oversee the new governance of the organisation.