UK PM sacks deputy over porn and harassment

The UK prime minister’s deputy Damian Green has been forced to quit the cabinet after an inquiry concluded he had lied about pornography on his computer and found ‘plausible’ evidence he had sexually harassed a young activist.

Green was effectively sacked by Theresa May after a Cabinet Office probe concluded that he had breached the ministerial code of conduct.

The investigation decided that claims by Conservative activist Kate Maltby, who had accused 61-year-old Green of touching her knee and sending inappropriate texts, were “plausible”.

It also found that the First Minister of State had also made ‘inaccurate and misleading’ statements about the existence of porn on a computer seized from his Commons office by police in 2008.

The resignation is the third from the cabinet in just a matter of weeks following the departures of Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, over sex harassment, and International Development Secretary Priti Patel over undeclared links to Israel.

Behaviour ‘fell short’

Green, who was the First Secretary of State and deputised for May in Prime Minister’s Question time, has for weeks vehemently denied he had done anything wrong.

But the Cabinet Office inquiry report, written by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, found that he had misled the public and the PM about the computer porn allegations.

“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,” it said.

“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.”

The inquiry, led by Cabinet Office ‘Propriety and Ethics’ chief Sue Gray, also found that Maltby’s account of misconduct could not be discounted.

In an article published in The Times last month, the 31-year-old activist alleged that Green had made an unwanted advance towards her in 2015 and suggested that this might further her career.