“We screwed this up,” Tim Farron bluntly told the Today programme this morning and, as today’s front pages suggest, the Lib Dem president isn’t wrong about that. For days, the party gave the impression that Nick Clegg knew nothing about the allegations of sexual misconduct against Chris Rennard only for Clegg to return from holiday last night and admit that he was aware of “indirect and non-specific concerns”.
In his own interview on BBC Radio Solent, Clegg, unlike Farron, suggested that the Lib Dems had behaved entirely appropriately. “The problem, as I explained yesterday, is that until last week no specific allegations were put to me, we acted on general concerns, now those general concerns have evolved into specific allegations we can act and we will,” said the Deputy PM. Both he and the party had “nothing to hide”.
But the question remains why more wasn’t done at the time to investigate the “general concerns” that Clegg now admits he was aware of. When Danny Alexander, Clegg’s then chief of staff, confronted Rennard (who denied and still denies any misconduct) in 2008 did he simply take his denials at face value? In addition, those in the party, such as Jo Swinson and Paul Burstow, who were made aware of specific allegations by the women concerned urgently need to account for their actions.
A further issue is whether Rennard’s resignation in 2009 was made on health grounds alone, as Clegg and Alexander insisted in their statements, or whether the “general concerns” about his behaviour also played a role. Simon Hughes notably told Sky News this morning that “If there were other reasons for that [the resignation] they may emerge”. Clegg is known to have held a two hour meeting with Rennard on the morning he resigned. Were the rumours of misconduct discussed then?
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