UK PM THERESA MAY FORCES HER DEPUTY TO QUIT AFTER SCANDAL

LONDON : Damian Green, a confidante of Prime Minister Theresa May since their days at Oxford and effectively the deputy prime minister, was unceremoniously asked to resign late Wednesday over a pornography scandal, making him the third cabinetlevel minister to leave since early November.

Michael Fallon resigned in the wake of sex allegations, while Priti Patel was dropped for her ministerial overreach during a holiday in Israel in August.

As Britain winds down for the holiday season, Green’s exit is seen as a personal blow to May on Christmas eve.

Green, who was the first secretary of state, was sacked after an inquiry found he had breached the ministerial code by making “inaccurate and misleading” statements over what he knew about claims that pornography was found on his office computer in 2008.

May wrote after Green’s resignation that she was “extremely sad” to write the acceptance letter, recalling, “We have been friends and colleagues throughout our whole political lives from our early days at university, entering the House of Commons at the same election, and serving alongside each other both in Opposition and in Government”.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that Green had been sacked because he lied in his recent statements, which was later assessed by a Cabinet Office inquiry that it amounted to breaching the ministerial code.