UK: Prime Minister Theresa May sacks her deputy for misleading remarks about pornography claims
Damian Green was found to have lied during an investigation that was launched after activist Kate Maltby alleged he made unwarranted advances on her.
British First Secretary of State Damian Green, one of the prime minister’s closest allies in the government and effectively her deputy, was sacked on Wednesday after he was found to have made misleading statements regarding what he knew about the claims of pornography found on his office computer in 2008, the BBC reported.
A series of leaked official documents from the British Home Office were published in newspapers in 2007, embarrassing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government. In 2008, Green, then the shadow immigration spokesperson, was arrested for “conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office”. Later that year, the police found explicit material on one of the Commons computers used by Green while conducting their inquiry into the leaks, The Guardian reported.
In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Conservative activist Kate Maltby alleged that Green made unwarranted advances on her in 2015. After the government launched an investigation into the allegations, a report on the pornography materials found on Green’s computer was leaked to the press.
Sue Gray, the Director General of Propriety and Ethics at the Cabinet Office, who looked into Maltby’s accusations said that the allegations were “plausible” but could not be proved conclusively. Green, it came to light, knew for years that the police had discovered explicit material on his computer but made statements to the contrary in the public.
In a letter to Green, May said she was “extremely sad” having to let him go as his actions did not meet the standards of conduct expected from a Cabinet minister. Green in his resignation letter insisted that he was innocent, and said he had never downloaded the pornography.
May’s government has been rocked by high-profile scandals and resignations over the past few months. In November, British Cabinet Minister Priti Patel resigned as the international development secretary after reports said that she held a series of undisclosed meetings in Israel earlier this year. Michael Fallon too resigned as the defence secretary amid sexual harassment allegations against him.