By . Ryan Kisiel and James Chapman . PUBLISHED: . 19:01 EST, 26 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 20:15 EST, 26 February 2013 . A senior Liberal Democrat was last night sensationally accused of trying to gag a whistleblower who spoke out over the spiralling sexual harassment scandal engulfing the party. On Monday night, Lord Stoneham made an ‘aggressive’ telephone call to a former party activist who had complained she had witnessed the former Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard molesting a party member more than a decade ago. He was apparently furious that she had contacted the Daily Mail to complain that her allegations had been swept under the carpet when she tried to raise the alarm at the time. Peers: Lord Ben Stoneham introduced to the Lords (left) standing next to Lord Rennard (right) The woman, whose identity we are not revealing, said she had been left deeply upset by the conversation – which suggests that even this week, as the scandal was unfolding, senior party figures were attempting to silence the whistleblowers. Last night Lib Dem president Tim Farron said Lord Stoneham’s intervention had been ‘wholly unacceptable’, while sources close to Nick Clegg said he had been reprimanded by the party’s chief whip. The peer, who was the Lib Dems’ director of operations at the height of the claims against Lord Rennard, will now be subject to the party’s two inquiries into the affair. Senior sources suggested the woman would even be encouraged to contact Scotland Yard detectives who are assessing the allegations against Lord Rennard. The Daily Mail has learned that complaints were made to Ben Stoneham, as the party’s then director of operations, about Lord Rennard’s alleged inappropriate behaviour in 2003. But Lord Stoneham, who was recommended for a peerage by Mr Clegg in 2011, is accused of failing to investigate the accusations thoroughly. After witnessing a young female political researcher upset by Lord Rennard’s alleged touching at a hotel during an ‘away weekend’, a senior activist said she went through official channels and reported the incident. She complained to Lord Stoneham, who was in charge of all human resource issues. The Lib Dems are too dodgy - we're voting for Silvio Berlusconi . The Lib Dem member, who is still active in local government, said she approached him in his office and asked if they could discuss Lord Rennard’s behaviour. Lord Stoneham is said to have replied: ‘That’s not very clever. He [Lord Rennard] has been silly. I will speak to him and deal with it.’ Shortly after the Mail put the claims about the 2003 complaints to Lord Stoneham, he rang the female activist while she was putting her children to bed. The woman said: ‘He rang up and said “I’m not very happy as I’ve just had a call from the Daily Mail”. He demanded to know why I was speaking to journalists just days before the Eastleigh by-election and branded me silly. ‘His tone was very harsh and it just took me back to the intimidating atmosphere when I was working in the party’s headquarters ten years ago. I reported it straight away to Tim Farron as people shouldn’t be put off from coming forward. ‘I know of two other people who reported the incident to Ben at the time and everyone was aware of it. But nothing was done and Lord Rennard was not formally interviewed or disciplined by the party. ‘A lot of us who complained were later marginalised and dismissed as ‘silly girls’ or ‘hormonal women’ by getting upset about the claims and making an issue of it.’ Last night a senior Liberal Democrat source said Mr Clegg regarded Lord Stoneham’s behaviour as ‘completely unacceptable’ and said he had been rebuked by chief whip Alistair Carmichael. The source added: ‘He has been left under no illusion that that is what people think. This is all now going to have to form part of the independent investigations.’ Mr Farron said: ‘His actions were wholly unacceptable and this conversation will now form part of our independent investigations. The party has a duty of care to the alleged victims, and they are my priority – as is the need to ensure that due process is properly followed.’ When questioned by the Mail, Lord Stoneham did not deny that complaints were made to him about Lord Rennard’s behaviour in 2003. He said: ‘There is an investigation and I’m not going to talk about internal party matters to the Daily Mail.’ Lord Stoneham ran the party’s headquarters under leaders Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell and Mr Clegg. He failed three times to get elected to the House of Commons. Minister for women: Jo Swinson . Women targeted in the alleged sexual harassment scandal were referred to as ‘Rennard’s red hot babes’, a former Liberal Democrat councillor claimed yesterday. The woman, who asked to be identified only as ‘Susan’, said she and at least nine other women had been on the receiving end of unwanted advances from Lord Rennard in incidents dating back to 2001. In an extraordinary interview, she also said she had confided in a number of senior figures – including Norman Lamb, a close ally of Nick Clegg – over the peer’s conduct. It is the first time Mr Lamb, a health minister, has been linked to the affair. It means a string of senior Lib Dems,  including Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and minister for women Jo Swinson, are now facing questions about what they knew of the allegations. Speaking to the BBC’s World at One, she said: ‘Jo [Swinson] did the best she could with a bad situation, because at the time, we were all saying, we don’t want this to go public, we really don’t want this to go public, we don’t want to be in the public domain. ‘In fact at one point, someone referred to us as “Rennard’s red hot babes”.’ ‘We didn’t want any of these headlines,’ she added. Susan also said it was clear that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg ‘didn’t know how to deal with it and then didn’t deal with it well’. She said she had told Mr Lamb, Miss Swinson and former party president Baroness Scott about an ‘extremely distressing’ encounter with Lord Rennard at a hotel in 2008, where he was talking to women activists about how they could become MPs. After dinner, she said, Lord Rennard sat next to her. She claimed: ‘At first I thought it was an accident – his leg brushed against me and then his hand brushed against my leg. ‘So I moved away a little. And then he moved a little closer. And I moved away again, and the brushing of my leg kept continuing. ‘So I kept moving further away. And eventually I said, “Look I’m going to go off to bed”. And he said “I’ll walk up with you”.’ Despite her protests, Lord Rennard walked her upstairs, she claimed, and suggested that she join him in his room for another drink – a suggestion she ‘very politely and very firmly’ rejected. She said: ‘Of course men do try it on, but this is a man with an almighty amount of power. At the time he held the purse strings for any winnable seat.’
Lord Stoneham made 'aggressive' phone call to woman on Monday night .
He was furious she had contacted the Daily Mail to talk about the claims .
She says her allegations were swept under the carpet .
By . Ryan Kisiel and James Chapman . PUBLISHED: . 19:01 EST, 26 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 20:15 EST, 26 February 2013 . A senior Liberal Democrat was last night sensationally accused of trying to gag a whistleblower who spoke out over the spiralling sexual harassment scandal engulfing the party. On Monday night, Lord Stoneham made an ‘aggressive’ telephone call to a former party activist who had complained she had witnessed the former Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard molesting a party member more than a decade ago. He was apparently furious that she had contacted the Daily Mail to complain that her allegations had been swept under the carpet when she tried to raise the alarm at the time. Peers: Lord Ben Stoneham introduced to the Lords (left) standing next to Lord Rennard (right) The woman, whose identity we are not revealing, said she had been left deeply upset by the conversation – which suggests that even this week, as the scandal was unfolding, senior party figures were attempting to silence the whistleblowers. Last night Lib Dem president Tim Farron said Lord Stoneham’s intervention had been ‘wholly unacceptable’, while sources close to Nick Clegg said he had been reprimanded by the party’s chief whip. The peer, who was the Lib Dems’ director of operations at the height of the claims against Lord Rennard, will now be subject to the party’s two inquiries into the affair. Senior sources suggested the woman would even be encouraged to contact Scotland Yard detectives who are assessing the allegations against Lord Rennard. The Daily Mail has learned that complaints were made to Ben Stoneham, as the party’s then director of operations, about Lord Rennard’s alleged inappropriate behaviour in 2003. But Lord Stoneham, who was recommended for a peerage by Mr Clegg in 2011, is accused of failing to investigate the accusations thoroughly. After witnessing a young female political researcher upset by Lord Rennard’s alleged touching at a hotel during an ‘away weekend’, a senior activist said she went through official channels and reported the incident. She complained to Lord Stoneham, who was in charge of all human resource issues. The Lib Dems are too dodgy - we're voting for Silvio Berlusconi . The Lib Dem member, who is still active in local government, said she approached him in his office and asked if they could discuss Lord Rennard’s behaviour. Lord Stoneham is said to have replied: ‘That’s not very clever. He [Lord Rennard] has been silly. I will speak to him and deal with it.’ Shortly after the Mail put the claims about the 2003 complaints to Lord Stoneham, he rang the female activist while she was putting her children to bed. The woman said: ‘He rang up and said “I’m not very happy as I’ve just had a call from the Daily Mail”. He demanded to know why I was speaking to journalists just days before the Eastleigh by-election and branded me silly. ‘His tone was very harsh and it just took me back to the intimidating atmosphere when I was working in the party’s headquarters ten years ago. I reported it straight away to Tim Farron as people shouldn’t be put off from coming forward. ‘I know of two other people who reported the incident to Ben at the time and everyone was aware of it. But nothing was done and Lord Rennard was not formally interviewed or disciplined by the party. ‘A lot of us who complained were later marginalised and dismissed as ‘silly girls’ or ‘hormonal women’ by getting upset about the claims and making an issue of it.’ Last night a senior Liberal Democrat source said Mr Clegg regarded Lord Stoneham’s behaviour as ‘completely unacceptable’ and said he had been rebuked by chief whip Alistair Carmichael. The source added: ‘He has been left under no illusion that that is what people think. This is all now going to have to form part of the independent investigations.’ Mr Farron said: ‘His actions were wholly unacceptable and this conversation will now form part of our independent investigations. The party has a duty of care to the alleged victims, and they are my priority – as is the need to ensure that due process is properly followed.’ When questioned by the Mail, Lord Stoneham did not deny that complaints were made to him about Lord Rennard’s behaviour in 2003. He said: ‘There is an investigation and I’m not going to talk about internal party matters to the Daily Mail.’ Lord Stoneham ran the party’s headquarters under leaders Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell and Mr Clegg. He failed three times to get elected to the House of Commons. Minister for women: Jo Swinson . Women targeted in the alleged sexual harassment scandal were referred to as ‘Rennard’s red hot babes’, a former Liberal Democrat councillor claimed yesterday. The woman, who asked to be identified only as ‘Susan’, said she and at least nine other women had been on the receiving end of unwanted advances from Lord Rennard in incidents dating back to 2001. In an extraordinary interview, she also said she had confided in a number of senior figures – including Norman Lamb, a close ally of Nick Clegg – over the peer’s conduct. It is the first time Mr Lamb, a health minister, has been linked to the affair. It means a string of senior Lib Dems,  including Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and minister for women Jo Swinson, are now facing questions about what they knew of the allegations. Speaking to the BBC’s World at One, she said: ‘Jo [Swinson] did the best she could with a bad situation, because at the time, we were all saying, we don’t want this to go public, we really don’t want this to go public, we don’t want to be in the public domain. ‘In fact at one point, someone referred to us as “Rennard’s red hot babes”.’ ‘We didn’t want any of these headlines,’ she added. Susan also said it was clear that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg ‘didn’t know how to deal with it and then didn’t deal with it well’. She said she had told Mr Lamb, Miss Swinson and former party president Baroness Scott about an ‘extremely distressing’ encounter with Lord Rennard at a hotel in 2008, where he was talking to women activists about how they could become MPs. After dinner, she said, Lord Rennard sat next to her. She claimed: ‘At first I thought it was an accident – his leg brushed against me and then his hand brushed against my leg. ‘So I moved away a little. And then he moved a little closer. And I moved away again, and the brushing of my leg kept continuing. ‘So I kept moving further away. And eventually I said, “Look I’m going to go off to bed”. And he said “I’ll walk up with you”.’ Despite her protests, Lord Rennard walked her upstairs, she claimed, and suggested that she join him in his room for another drink – a suggestion she ‘very politely and very firmly’ rejected. She said: ‘Of course men do try it on, but this is a man with an almighty amount of power. At the time he held the purse strings for any winnable seat.’
engulfing the party. On Monday night, Lord Stoneham made an ‘aggressive’ telephone call to a that she had contacted the Daily Mail to complain that her allegations had been swept under the an investigation and I’m not going to talk about