Last Saturday, Carole Cadwalladr continued her amazing reporting on the Cambridge Analytica scandal with a report on whistleblower Shahmir Sanni.
In early 2016, Sanni was a 22-year-old recent graduate, volunteering with Vote Leave, the official campaign to leave the European Union led by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. It was one of his first pieces of work experience after graduating from the University of East Anglia with a degree in economics, and for someone who describes himself as a “natural Eurosceptic” it was a plum role. “It was like a startup. Everyone was throwing ideas around and saying different things. You’re given a lot of creative freedom.” He was still living at home in Solihull, but was travelling in by train, a few days each week, to work in Vote Leave’s headquarters at Millbank Tower in London, overlooking the Thames.
Vote Leave’s senior directors were quick to realise how useful he would be for the campaign. “A huge part of campaigns is to make sure you diversify,” says Sanni. “And we discussed how crucial it was that Vote Leave didn’t appear racist.”
So, it was: “Here’s the brown guy”?
“Exactly,” he says.
It was a role he was happy to play, though, helping with their black and ethnic minority outreach efforts. “At university all my friends were ‘Remain, Remain, Remain’, but when I started doing research into it, I realised I’m a nerdy Eurosceptic. And even after all this, I would still vote Leave.”
The volume on this latest scandal pumped up to 10 when Stephen Parksinson, Special Advisor to Prime Minister Theresa May, was accused of outing Mr. Sanni as a gay man...
For now, Theresa May is standing by her advisor.
Parkinson has strongly denied that he was involved, but was accused of maliciously outing whistleblower Shahmir Sanni after he said in a statement on Friday that he had only advised him in the context of a romantic relationship.
Sanni said Parkinson’s statement had forced him to come out to his mother and family and put some relatives in Pakistan in potential danger.
On Monday, May stood by her longstanding adviser, with a spokesman saying she had full confidence in him.
Despite that support, an operative who has long worked out of public view has now been dragged into the spotlight and become the subject of fierce criticism.
Parkinson, like his former colleague and May’s ex-chief of staff, Nick Timothy, has been thought of in Conservative circles as showing potential. Both were placed on the official list of potential parliamentary candidates for the 2015 general election.
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Theresa May faced anger earlier in Parliament today as she refused to condemn Mr Parkinson’s actions, and claimed the message circulated by Downing Street was actually a “personal statement” from the adviser – drawing cries of “disgrace” from Labour MPs.
Responding to a question from Labour’s Ben Bradshaw, she said: “Any statements issued were personal statements… they were personal statements… they were personal statements that were issued.
“I of course recognise the importance of ensuring that we do recognise that for some, being outed as gay is difficult because of their family and circumstances. What I want to see is a world where everyone is able to be confident in their sexuality and doesn’t have to worry about such things.”
This seems to be a Trumpian level of incompetence and/or vindictiveness as only Theresa May’s government could possibly match.
May seriously needs to get to the bottom of this and, if necesary, step down as Prime Minister.