Theresa May’s most important ally in Government has been asked to leave his Cabinet job after a probe found he made “misleading” statements about pornography found on his Commons computer. Damian Green was forced out after an investigation exposed he had known for years that the explicit material had been discovered by police, something at odds with his public comments. The probe carried out by a senior Whitehall official also found claims from Conservative activist Kate Maltby that Mr Green made unwarranted advances on her were “plausible”, though it was not possible to prove them one way or the other.
In a letter, the Prime Minister said how “extremely sad” she was to have to let him go, but said that his actions set out by the investigation, meant she needed to ask him to resign. He responded apologising, but insisting he had never downloaded the pornography and denied Ms Maltby’s allegations. The departure is a major blow to the Prime Minister who used Mr Green, an old university friend, as a deputy who could bring stability to her Cabinet as it threatened to implode following the June election fiasco. She now must decide who, if anyone, replaces Mr Green, but The Independent understands she is unlikely to take a decision until after Christmas.
Mr Green is the second senior ranking minister and ally she has lost to Westminster’s sexual harassment scandal, which also saw Sir Michael Fallon resign from his defence secretary post earlier this year amid allegations of inappropriate conduct. The inquiry against Mr Green was triggered after Ms Maltby, 30 years younger than Mr Green, claimed he “fleetingly” touched her knee during a meeting in a pub in 2015, and a year later sent her a “suggestive” text message after she was pictured wearing a corset in a newspaper.
But the investigation later spread to claims that pornography was found on his computer in 2008 and whether he had been honest in his statements on the matter. Director General of Propriety and Ethics at the Cabinet Office, Sue Gray, had been trying to ascertain if Mr Green’s alleged behaviour happened when he was a minister and if it had breached rules governing the conduct of members of government. A summary of the investigation from the Cabinet Office said allegations from Ms Maltby were found to be “plausible” but that it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of Mr Green’s behaviour.
But, crucially, the Cabinet Office inquiry found problems with statements made by the First Secretary of State regarding allegations of indecent material found on his parliamentary computer almost a decade ago. The report added: “Mr Green’s statements of 4 and 11 November, which suggested that he was not aware that indecent material was found on parliamentary computers in his office, were inaccurate and misleading, as the Metropolitan Police Service had previously informed him of the existence of this material. “These statements therefore fall short of the honesty requirement of the Seven Principles of Public Life and constitute breaches of the Ministerial Code. Mr Green accepts this.”
