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A new bullying row hit the Conservative Party today after one of its MPs was accused of “vicious” verbal abuse against members of her own staff.

In phone calls heard by the Standard, Lucy Allan rants at a female staffer on sick leave — describing her absence as “pathetic”, telling her she “pissed around on my life” and accusing her of having an “alcohol problem”.

The MP for Telford threatens to sack the young woman if she takes four weeks off, as advised by her doctor.

She tells her: “I’m not paying you for that then. It’s ridiculous.”

Ms Allan, 51, says that if her staffer resigns she will supply a reference.

She is also said to have erupted at another staff member who soothed an angry constituent after the MP allegedly cancelled a surgery to go to Royal Ascot.

What Lucy Allan MP said to her staffer Arianne Plumbly “Listen — if you think you’re going to be clever Arianne you are going to come off worse. Please believe me. If you think you are going to be clever you are going to come off worse.” “I’m advising you to work as normal or resign. We all know you’re not ill. We’ve seen a pattern of it. You’ve taken three days off once a month for four months.” “You don’t not turn up for nausea. What planet are you on. I’m sorry, “gum disappointments” or whatever you say — you just don’t not turn up for that.” “By the way, if you think you can go to some sort of tribunal — you’ve got to think about your benefits here Arianne.” “I actually have a life too, okay? And you have pissed, pissed around on my life. You’ve made it incredibly difficult.” After hearing that Ms Plumbly was signed off sick for four weeks, Allan says: “Right. I’m not paying you for that then. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Who do you think you are? You are on a temporary contract. You are not protected by the law. You do not have 12 months service. What are you playing at? “If you sign yourself off sick for four months the only option will be to dismiss you.” Message left by Lucy Allan on Arianne Plumbly’s answerphone: “Arianne, please call me. If you want to, if you want to get paid notice pay, you will need to call me today. And I’m going to keep ringing you. “And I also want to know where the second computer is, because we appear to have a theft from the office. So can you please call me. Thank you. “I have to say your conduct is very odd, indeed. Just not turning up day after day, without even speaking to me. I think you must have known. “You can’t, can’t possibly have assumed that was reasonable conduct. But, yeah, go on. Call me today. Let’s see if you can manage that. Ok? “Because we are going to have to have this conversation. And yeah, I’m really angry that you’ve left me in the lurch without bothering to pick up the phone. “You’ve been nauseous day after day. I don’t know you’re, if this is some sort of alcohol problem or what ever it is, but it’s not a very good excuse because actually it was a cough. A cough that went nauseous.” Ms Plumbly says she notified Allan of sick days via text, which was an agreed method. She strongly denies any allegation of theft and says she does not drink.

The revelations about her behaviour come as the Tories reel from a scandal in which activist Elliott Johnson, 21, committed suicide, claiming fellow Tory Mark Clarke, 38, was bullying him. Mr Clarke denies the allegations.

Though the cases are not connected, both raise questions about whether the Conservative Party should do more to react to bullying complaints.

Ex-members of Ms Allan’s staff have exclusively told the Standard at least two protests about her aggressive conduct were made to party HQ but claim neither was properly acted upon.

One came after the death of Elliott, whose father has since said the party has a “culture of bullying”.

Tory bosses today insisted they dealt with complaints about Ms Allan properly.

Ms Allan’s alleged bullying target Arianne Plumbly first became involved with the MP’s campaign as a volunteer before the general election in September 2014, eventually joining her staff.

Ms Plumbly, 26, managed constituency case work after the election but claims the MP turned on her.

She said the relationship descended into a series of bruising confrontations and she had to be signed off work by a doctor.

In a call heard by the Standard, Ms Allan flies into a rage at the staffer, telling her repeatedly to “shut up” as she learns that Ms Plumbly has been signed off.

In a mocking, child-like voice, the MP mimics her employee, saying: “’I’ve got nausea’ — you don’t not turn up for nausea. What planet are you on?”

She adds: “By the way, if you think you can go to some sort of tribunal you’ve got to think about your benefits here Arianne.”

When the staffer says she doesn’t want benefits, Ms Allan shouts: “Then work, you silly girl.”

After hearing a doctor has signed her off with stress for four weeks, Ms Allan screams at her: “Who do you think you are? You are on a temporary contract. You are not protected by the law. You do not have 12 months’ service.

“What are you playing at? If you sign yourself off sick for four [weeks] the only option will be to dismiss you.”

In a string of voice messages the MP previously left on Ms Plumbly’s phone, Ms Allan implies the staffer has taken a computer from the office without permission and suggests she has an “alcohol problem”.

Ms Plumbly, who formerly worked for the Walt Disney Company, denies both of the accusations, adding that she does not drink.

On her time with the MP, she told the Standard today: “It’s all about trying to beat you down. It was a nasty environment to work in.”

She claims that at the time of the whole affair she felt that she was “left to deal with it on my own”, despite trying to contact the party and parliamentary authorities.

When the Tatler Tory scandal involving Mark Clarke broke, she went back to Conservative Campaign headquarters to try to inform them of Ms Allan’s behaviour.

She said: “There was no sympathy or anything. I don’t think they dealt with it at all. I’m really disappointed.”

In a written response to the Standard, Ms Allan said: “Arianne Plumbly was dismissed from her employment with Lucy Allan, MP in Telford, after four months’ employment, for gross misconduct following misuse of the Parliamentary email system, persistent unauthorised absenteeism, refusal to follow a reasonable instruction and rudeness to residents.”

When I see her in the paper talking about apprentices and young people it’s amazing, because this was a person who bullies people. It’s vicious — she demoralises them Arianne Plumbly

Another former staffer claimed to have challenged Ms Allan over her behaviour — but then later became a target.

That ex-worker said one such tirade occurred when Ms Allan’s team tried to deal with the fall-out from the MP demanding that constituents’ appointments be rearranged so she could go to Royal Ascot.

The former staffer said: “When I see her in the paper talking about apprentices and young people it’s amazing, because this was a person who bullies people. It’s vicious — she demoralises them.

“I’m self-assured and it didn’t knock my confidence. I know how good I am at doing my job.

"But I definitely went away and thought, ‘If this is politics I don’t want it, this feels awful’.

Lucy Allan's previous controversies A “misleading” death threat: After the vote on Syria air strikes, Ms Allan tweeted that she had received online abuse including a death threat. She posted an image of an email “from Rusty from Dawley” that ended with the line, “in which case there is no hope. Unless you die”. However, the real Rusty — the son of a local Labour councillor — came forward to say the words “Unless you die” had been added to an email he had sent her which had in fact ended: “Think about it yeah?” As the story was taken up, Ms Allan deleted her original tweet and said the death threat had arrived in a different email and that she had put them together as “examples of the type of unacceptable online abuse that comes in most days”. She admitted her tweet “created a misleading impression” but went on: “However, it emphatically does not amount to my having invented fake death threats... to claim that I did is wholly false. In reporting what I can only believe was a genuine death threat... I believe I have acted responsibly and within my duties as an MP and my rights as a citizen.” A deleted Facebook post: On Monday night, Ms Allan “named and shamed” on Facebook local politicians who she accused of “bully boy tactics” to oust her, including the father of “Rusty”. “I have been hounded for the last two and half years with smears, fear, lies, threats, slurs and abuse; maybe I was fair game, a happy friendly female who wanted nothing but the best for Telford.” She claimed “these public officials invented a disgusting slur that somehow I faked a death threat”. She also uploaded a video blaming her problems on opponents “unhappy they didn’t get the MP they wanted, frustrated they didn’t get the government they wanted”. She later deleted the post and the video.

“For it to do that to me, I can’t imagine how younger people would feel.”

The employee also told of phoning the party to complain but by the time messages were answered the individual just “wanted to be away from it”.

A third ex-worker for the MP, Katie Woodland, joined the Tories after being inspired by David Cameron’s decision to legalise same-sex marriage. The RAF veteran’s daughter, who runs her own Telford business, was Ms Allan’s campaign manager before Ms Plumbly joined and claims CCHQ knew about the MP’s behaviour.

Ms Woodland, 32, said: “She would scream, shout, throw her toys out of the pram, have a full-on two-year-old’s tantrum.

“You couldn’t have a conversation with her. She’d stand, fists clenched and barrage you with viciousness.

“If you are looking at a definition of bullying, she ticks all the boxes.”

The campaigner said she put her “life on hold” to help in the election but “fell out of love with the campaign” because of Ms Allan’s behaviour.

She said she did receive support from CCHQ insofar as they gave her opportunities to escape the office when things were particularly bad.

A party official also spoke to Ms Allan, although things would then continue as before after a brief respite, she added.

Ms Woodland said her complaints should have been followed up with stronger action, with senior figures telling the MP she would not remain a candidate if things did not change.

She added: “They knew this back history and have never put anything in place going forward. That is their failing.”

Ms Allan was a senior Wandsworth councillor and a chartered accountant who started up her own employment law consultancy. She has a husband and a son.

In her statement to the Standard she said: “Katie Woodland walked out of her employment with the Conservative Party. She has never been employed by Lucy Allan MP.”

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “As soon as these complaints were made they were dealt with appropriately and sympathetically.”

Both Ms Plumbly and Ms Woodhead deny doing anything wrong.