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UK Minister Resigns Over Bullying Crisis

After young activist found dead.

Grant Shapps, UK International Development Minister, resigned Saturday after being accused of failing to act on bullying allegations within the Conservative Party. A young Conservative activist, Eliott Johnson, 21, was found dead on railway tracks in September after he had accused Conservative youth organizer Mark Clarke of bullying. In his resignation letter, Shapps said that “although neither the party nor I can find any record of written allegations of bullying, sexual abuse or blackmail made to the chairman’s office prior to the election, I cannot help but feel that the steady stream of those who raised smaller, more nuanced, objections should have perhaps set alarm bells ringing sooner.”