The earliest claims go back to 2007 when two women met Paul Burstow, then the party's Chief Whip in the Commons, to raise the issue with him. In a February 2013 statement issued shortly after "Channel 4 News" had broken the story, Nick Clegg wrote that claims about the improper conduct of Lord Rennard had been brought to his attention in 2008, but Rennard had denied any wrongdoing when challenged. The "indirect and non-specific concerns" he had been told about meant that he could take no further action, but Danny Alexander, Clegg's chief of staff at the time, had warned Rennard that the alleged behaviour would be "wholly unacceptable". A subsequent independent report in June 2013 by Helena Morrissey into "processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats" said that the leadership should have held an inquiry into the allegations at that time (when Rennard was still a member of staff).