It's called a free press for a reason, Mr Clegg: Fury as 'Liberal' leader calls journalists 'self-appointed detectives' for exposing scandal he and his party covered up

• Ill-judged remarks have shocked Tory and Labour MPs
• Former Lib Dem activist Alison Smith said Clegg was wrong to attack the press
• Mail has learnt senior Lib Dems were attempting to silence whistleblowers

Nick Clegg launched an extraordinary attack on the media yesterday for exposing the Lord Rennard scandal.
The Deputy Prime Minister accused journalists investigating a cover-up of being ‘self-appointed detectives’.
His ill-judged remarks shocked Tory and Labour MPs, who said he should focus on getting to the truth.

Ill-judged: Nick Clegg (left) launched an attack on journalists for exposing the Lord Rennard scandal. Alison Smith (right), a former Lib Dem activist, went public with groping claims against Lord Rennard

And Alison Smith, a former Liberal Democrat activist who went public with groping claims against Lord Rennard last week, said Mr Clegg was wrong to attack a ‘free press regarded by most as important in a democracy’.
In another twist, the Mail has learnt that senior Lib Dems were attempting to silence whistleblowers only this week.

 

On Monday, Lord Stoneham, who was the party’s director of operations at the height of the claims against Lord Rennard, made an ‘aggressive’ telephone call to a former party activist who claimed she saw the peer molesting a young woman a decade ago.
He was apparently furious she had contacted this newspaper to complain that her allegations had been swept under the carpet.
On another black day for the Lib Dems: 

• A former party frontbencher said she sounded the alarm about Lord Rennard directly with Mr Clegg;
• David Cameron told him he must ‘get to the bottom’ of the allegations;
• Lord Rennard broke his silence to insist he was innocent and claim he had never been confronted with any complaints;
• A Lib Dem councillor claimed she had been molested and knew of nine other victims referred to as ‘Rennard’s red hot babes’;
•  Lib Dem health minister Norman Lamb was drawn into the affair by an alleged victim;
• Party officials met  detectives who have been called in to assess whether criminal acts may have taken place.

The affair started when former Lib Dem activists went public with claims of sexual harassment against Lord Rennard, who retired as the party’s chief executive in 2009 – ostensibly on health grounds.
After initially denying he knew about the claims until shortly before three women made allegations on Channel 4 News, Mr Clegg admitted he had asked his then chief of staff Danny Alexander to probe ‘non-specific concerns’ about Lord Rennard in 2008.
It has since emerged that Mr Clegg’s office failed to act on specific and detailed allegations of misconduct by the peer made in 2010.
Sandra Gidley, the ex-frontbencher who raised her concerns with him, said: ‘I spoke to Nick Clegg about general concerns. I didn’t know of any specific incidents and neither did he.’

Peers: Lord Ben Stoneham introduced to the Lords (left) standing next to Lord Rennard (right)

A spokesman for the Deputy Prime Minister said: ‘Sandra Gidley did raise general concerns with Nick Clegg about Lord Rennard’s conduct. She did not know of or raise specific allegations.
As Nick Clegg has said, he was aware of general concerns which were acted upon by his then chief of staff Danny Alexander.’ 
Yesterday Mr Clegg, speaking outside his south-west London home, called for detectives who are now reviewing the claims to be allowed to do their job.
He said: ‘I understand there are many people who appear to want to act as self-appointed detectives trying to piece together events that happened many years ago.
'But the only way that we are going to get to the bottom of the truth, the only way we are going to ensure that the women whose allegations were broadcast on television last week are properly listened to, the only way were are going to establish exactly what happened and who knew what and when, is by allowing the two investigations that I established immediately after the Channel 4 broadcast to do their job and, indeed, to allow the police, whom we have now approached, to do their job as well.

'And in the meantime I cannot – and my party cannot – provide a running commentary on every shred of speculation about events which happened many years ago.’ 
His intervention drew a stinging response from Miss Smith, who wrote on Twitter: ‘Clegg slams “self-appointed detectives”, otherwise known as the free press. Regarded by most as important in a democracy.’ 
She added: ‘They covered up a massive scandal, and now they don’t want people asking questions.’
She also dismissed the idea that the allegations had been timed to damage the party leadership ahead of a crucial by-election in Eastleigh, which will take place tomorrow. 
Toward the end of last year, she and some of the other alleged victims of Lord Rennard’s unwanted advances agreed to go public with their story, and told the party at the end of last month that they had done so.
Therese Coffey, a Tory MP and member of the Commons culture, media and sport committee, said: ‘It is only through the power of the free press and TV that these allegations have come to light. Instead of trying to divert attention by blaming journalists, Nick Clegg should be focusing on getting to the unvarnished truth.’ 
Conor Burns, another Tory MP, said: ‘Only someone with the genius of Nick Clegg could have a sex scandal that doesn’t involve sex and turn it into a leadership crisis.
Mr Clegg would have to answer fewer questions from the press if he put out a statement that he could stick to about what he knew and when.’ 
Labour MP John Mann, who wrote to police asking them to investigate, claimed Mr Clegg treated the Rennard accusations as an issue of ‘political management’.
‘The real issue is why didn’t Clegg and the Liberals do the appropriate thing in dealing with this as serious allegation, rather than as political management,’ he said.
Mr Clegg’s aides insisted he had not been attacking broadcasters in his remarks but rather Conservative-supporting newspapers he believes are revelling in the scandal.

Peer denies Clegg's claim that he was confronted over conduct

At least 10 women are thought to have made allegations that they were molested or pestered by Lord Rennard

Lord Rennard yesterday dramatically denied Nick Clegg’s claim that he had been confronted about sexual harassment allegations.
As yet more senior party figures were dragged into the scandal, the peer at the centre of the claims categorically denied anyone had spoken to him about his conduct.
But Mr Clegg’s office insists Cabinet minister Danny Alexander confronted Lord Rennard about rumours of unwanted advances to women Lib Dem activists in 2008.
In a statement on Sunday, Mr Clegg said that Mr Alexander had ‘put these concerns to Chris Rennard and warned him that any such behaviour was wholly unacceptable’.
But a spokesman for Lord Rennard insisted: ‘In 27 years of working for the Liberal Democrats he received no complaint or allegation about his behaviour. Nor is he aware of any personal complaints being made in the three and a half years since he stood down as chief executive until last week.’
In an indication that the key players in the affair are beginning to turn against each other, sources close to Mr Clegg insisted Lord Rennard’s meeting with Mr Alexander ‘categorically did happen’.
One said: ‘He raised the concerns that had been passed to him, that were non-specific, about Chris’s behaviour. Chris denied them.’
The Deputy Prime Minister’s aides also suggested for the first time that the peer did not stand down solely for health reasons in 2009, as was publicly stated, but after pressure from Mr Clegg’s office.
‘We did act,’ said one. ‘Chris Rennard was spoken to, then in 2009 he was ill and he stood down. The timeline speaks for itself.’ 
In his statement Lord Rennard’s spokesman said he ‘refuted the allegations’ that he had behaved inappropriately with as many as ten female activists.
The spokesman added: ‘He has been notified of an internal investigatory panel within the party. 
‘The matter must now be regarded as sub judice pending its proceedings and no further statement will be issued in the interim.
He expects others to respect the sub judice principle, and he notes that under the party rules concerned it is for any case made against him to be proved by evidence to the requisite standard.
He denies impropriety.’ 
Former Liberal Democrat  leader Lord Ashdown suggested yesterday he and colleagues had ‘all picked up the rumours’ about Lord Rennard ‘some time before’ women went public with allegations of sexual harassment last week.
But he insisted he did not hear any speculation about the peer’s conduct while he was leader.
And although one of the victims claimed allegations against Lord Rennard dated back as far as 2001, Charles Kennedy, who was party leader at the time, insisted he had never heard anything about them.

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