Demands for police probe as MP Mark Menzies is stripped of Tory whip and axed ... trends now

The Tories are embroiled in a fresh sleaze row today after it emerged an MP has been stripped of the Tory whip and axed as a trade envoy over allegations he misused campaign funds.

Mark Menzies is said to have made a 3am call to a 78-year-old party volunteer in December claiming to have been locked up by 'bad people'.

The MP for Fylde in Lancashire is accused of saying he needed £5,000 as a 'matter of life and death', with the sum later rising to £6,500. 

It was initially handed over by an office manager, before being reimbursed from party funds, according to The Times. 

A further £14,000 given by donors for use on Tory campaign activities was also allegedly transferred to Mr Menzies' personal bank accounts and used for private medical expenses.

Mr Menzies disputes the allegations but the Conservative Party is looking into the claims and taking them seriously - while Labour has called for the police to get involved.

He has been removed as one of the PM's trade envoys, a role that saw him foster relations with Colombia, Chile, Peru and Argentina. 

In the Commons, shadow leader of the House Lucy Powell said the 'extraordinary' allegations raised 'very serious questions' and warranted a police investigation.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps dodged on the situation during interviews this morning, insisting he was 'not privy to the details'. Amid claims the Tories have known about the claims since January, Mr Shapps suggested new information had come to light yesterday. The MP was previously accused of getting a friend's dog drunk in 2017, paying for sex from a male escort in 2014 and drunkenly 'kicking chairs and poking people' at a Last Night of the Proms concert as recently as last August.

A spokeswoman for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: 'Following a call with the Chief Whip, Mark Menzies has agreed to relinquish the Conservative whip, pending the outcome of an investigation.' 

This means that Mr Menzies is no longer a Tory MP and will sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons.

The role of trade envoy is given by the PM to MPs from across parties who have links to the relevant areas. 

It is yet another headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after another MP, William Wragg, gave up the whip last week after admitting he had given his colleagues' phone number to someone on a dating app in a suspected honeytrap scandal.

Police are investigating reports explicit images and flirtatious texts were sent to multiple MPs in what is believed to be a 'spear-phishing' attack and a deliberate attempt to compromise Westminster. 

Mr Menzies, who is one of Mr Sunak's trade envoys, is said to have called his former campaign manager at 3.15am one morning in December, claiming he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of 'life and death'.

The unnamed woman refused and is said to have told the MP she would speak to his constituency office manager in the morning.  

A few hours later the sum demanded, which rose to £6,500, was eventually paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from funds raised from donors in an account named Fylde Westminster Group, it is alleged.

After being rescued from the flat, Mr Menzies is said to have called the 78-year-old again to tell her he had asked one of his London staffers to collect him. 

The junior staffer allegedly handed over his own money, thought to be a few hundred pounds, which Mr Menzies said he owed to two other men. 

The next day, on another call, Mr Menzies allegedly said he needed another £35,000 for medical bills. When he was told there were no more campaign funds, he allegedly replied: 'Oh, we'll raise some more.' 

According to a source close to Mr Menzies, the MP had met a man on an online dating website and gone to the man's flat, before subsequently going with another man to a second address where he continued drinking. 

It was falsely claimed he was sick at one point and several people at the address demanded £5,000, claiming it was for cleaning up and other expenses.

The source said Mr Menzies decided to pay them because he was scared of what would happen otherwise, but did not have the funds to transfer the money from his own savings. 

They claimed the MP subsequently offered to reimburse the monies to the fund but was allegedly told he did not have to.

There are other occasions where Mr Menzies is said to have used money from the campaign fund to cover his personal expenses.

In 2020 he allegedly sought £3,000 to cover medical bills, but

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