UK politician resigns over bullying claims

LONDON: A former chairman of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party resigned from his post as a junior minister on Saturday, in response to allegations that he failed to act on warnings about bullying within the party.
Grant Shapps, who chaired Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives from 2012 until May this year, quit as an international development minister after saying he took responsibility for hiring an aide who became the subject of complaints about bullying.
"Over the past few weeks - as individual allegations have come to light - I have come to the conclusion that the buck should stop with me," Shapps said in a letter to Cameron.
In September a 21-year-old Conservative activist, Elliott Johnson, was believed to have killed himself after making accusations of bullying against the party aide, hired by Shapps to organise campaigners.
The same aide was also the subject of a complaint made to Shapps in January by a previous chairwoman of the Conservative Party, Sayeeda Warsi, according to a copy of her letter published by the Guardian on Friday.
She told the newspaper she "never received a satisfactory response" from Shapps.
Cameron said an independent lawyer was overseeing an internal inquiry into the bullying claims.
The main opposition Labour party said a full independent inquiry was needed to look at the culture and practices of the Conservative Party