According to the Times, Menzies phoned his former campaign manager, now a party volunteer, at 3.15am one night in December saying he was locked in a flat by “some bad people” and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death”.
Hours later, Menzies’ campaign manager paid him the sum, which had risen to £6,500, from her personal savings. She was reimbursed from campaign donations, the paper said.
According to an account given to the Times by a source close to Menzies, he asked for the money after meeting a man he met on a dating website. The source said Menzies had gone to the man’s flat, before going with another man to a second address, where he continued drinking. People at the address falsely claimed he had been sick and demanded £5,000 for cleaning up and other expenses, according to this account.
The source close to Menzies told the Times he paid the money because he was afraid of what would happen if he refused, but had insufficient funds in his own savings. They claimed he offered to repay the sum, but that local Tories who controlled the campaign funds said he did not need to.
The Times also reported that Menzies phoned his then campaign manager four years ago asking her to give him £3,000 from campaign funds to cover medical bills and promising to repay the money later.
