A Conservative aide has been arrested for allegedly raping a woman in Parliament.
Sam Armstrong, chief of staff to Craig MacKinlay MP, attacked a woman in an office building just yards from the Commons after a drinking session on the House of Lords’ terrace, it is alleged.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed a 23-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of rape following an incident in the early hours of Friday.
Mr Armstrong is said to have been drinking with a group of Tory aides and female guests at the taxpayer-subsidised bar on the Parliamentary estate.
A woman then claimed she went with him to Mr Mackinlay’s parliamentary office in the nearby Norman Shaw North complex of the estate where she was raped.
he office of the MP for South Thanet, Kent, was raided by six uniformed officers on Friday and sealed as a crime scene, according to The Sun.
He was drawn into the ‘Tatler Tory’ scandal last year, sparked by the suicide of Conservative activist Elliot Johnson, amid claims of bullying.
Mr Armstrong was also said to have attempted to blackmail a senior minister who was having an affair, by filming him leaving a club in London so he could use the footage to later gain political favours.
He denied the allegations and no further action was taken.
However, he was banned from last year’s Conservative Party conference along with two others while the claims were investigated.
Mr Armstrong, who has posed for pictures with former Prime Minister David Cameron, has been banned from entering the Parliamentary estate until further notice and has been released on police bail until January.
