PORN scandal minister Damian Green has reportedly told Theresa May he won’t quit the Cabinet and if the Prime Minister wants him out, she’ll have to sack him.
Green, the First Secretary of State, effectively the deputy Prime Minister, is under investigation by the Cabinet Office, after claims of sexual harassment, made by journalist Kate Maltby. She said the politician, a family friend of her parents, had touched her inappropriately.
Maltby say when she met Green for a drink they discussed her career and he gossiped about sexual affairs in Parliament before brushing her knee with his hand.
She says the Tory told her, that his wife was “very understanding”.
A year later, when she posed in a corset to accompany a newspaper article on the history of the clothing, Green texted the journalist: “Long time no see. But having admired you in a corset in my favourite tabloid I feel impelled to ask if you are free for a drink anytime?”
Green has denied any sexual advances against Maltby and said the “untrue allegation has come as a complete shock and is deeply hurtful”.
Days after the allegation came to light a police officer involved in an unrelated raid on Green’s parliamentary office in 2008 accused the Cabinet minister of hoarding an “extensive” amount of pornography on his work computer.
Green has also denied downloading and viewing the material.
Cabinet Office director-general Sue Gray has been investigating the Tory MP for the last month, her report is understood to be on the Prime Minister’s desk, awaiting attention.
According to a daily newspaper, May will have to make a judgment about believing Green, a friend from university days, or Maltby.
Damningly, over the weekend, reports emerged of a close male associate of Green contacting Gray to speak in support of Maltby.
But sacking him may not be that easy for May.
Earlier this month Brexit Secretary David Davis threatened to quit if Green gets fired because of the pornography on his machine.
In a BBC interview last week, Neil Lewis, the detective who examined Green’s computer in 2008, said he had “no doubt whatsoever” that it was the politician who accessed pornography, and not, as had been suggested, someone else in the office.
Lewis said: “The computer was in Mr Green’s office, on his desk, logged in, his account, his name.
“In between browsing pornography, he was sending emails from his account, his personal account, reading documents … it was ridiculous to suggest anybody else could have done it.”
The former officer said the images were not extreme or illegal, as earlier reports claimed, and featured no images of children or sexual abuse.
The two former policemen were themselves reprimanded, with the chief inspector of constabulary, Thomas Winsor, accusing them of breaking “the obligation of confidentiality and the duty not to break trust”.
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