Mark Mac Gregor - Betsygate

Betsygate

Allegations which surfaced concerning the payment, out of the Parliamentary purse, of wages to Betsy Duncan Smith led to an investigation into the conduct of IDS by the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges.

In January 2006, the Conservatives launched an inquiry into the "Betsygate affair" and MacGregor's alleged role in it. The Sunday Telegraph revealed that the party had been re-investigating the saga surrounding payments made by the former leader, Iain Duncan Smith, to his wife, Betsy, for secretarial work in 2003. In the private report MacGregor was cleared of any wrongdoing. IDS, however, lays the blame for his downfall completely at MacGregor's feet, and threatened to resign the party whip if either MacGregor or alleged co-conspirator Vanessa Gearson were ever again able to stand as Conservative candidates.

MacGregor and Gearson were reinserted on the parliamentary candidates list, despite protests from the traditionalist Cornerstone Group of backbenchers, although he was later deselected by the Thanet South Conservative Association.

MacGregor has subsequently resumed his business career becoming Chief Executive of cloud and IT services business, Connect Support Services. In 2011, Connect purchased the assets of Hosted Revolution Ltd and in 2012 acquired Thinhost Ltd, both cloud service providers.