A young Conservative activist found dead on railway tracks at Sandy believed he had been bullied everyday by a man dubbed ‘The Tatler Tory’ who he said told him he would be ‘crushed like an ant’.

Elliott Johnson had also lost £23,000 a year as political editor of the pressure group Conservative Way Forward and had been put on a zero hours £10 an hour contract when he lay down in front of a train on September 15 last year.

At an inquest in Ampthill, the court heard that the 21-year-old had arrived alone at Sandy railway station at 4.11pm. At 6.42pm a train driver reported a body on the line a kilometre north of the railway station.

A blue towel had been laid out and Elliott’s leather bag and silver hip flask were recovered.

The cause of death was severe traumatic injuries of head and a coroner ruled that Elliott had committed suicide.

The court heard that Elliott was one of a number of people who had complained about bullying by Mark Clarke, who had run the Conservative election RoadTrip last year. The 38-year-old has since been banned from the party for life.

Elliott complained that Clarke had pinned him in a chair and hurled abuse at him at the Marquis of Granby pub in London in August of last year after he tweeted a result of a European election while at Nottingham University.

In a complaint to the Conservative Party he said: “He is very tall and I am very short.

“He got even more irate and said he would me for breach of copyright.

“Mark said he would use the information to destroy my career and said it would be across front pages unless I apologised.

“He said he had sued lots of people and smashed them like ants when they were small and young and said ‘this is what I am going to do to you.’

“He grabbed my chin to make sure I was looking at him.”

On September 2, Elliott recorded a meeting he had with Clarke and political journalist Andre Walker in which they urged him to drop the allegation, something which he did.

Elliott died 13 days later. In an extract from a suicide note, he wrote: “I have been bullied by Mark Clarke and betrayed by Andre Walker.”