UK minister sent female secretary to buy sex toys

A BRITISH minister who has admitted asking his secretary to buy sex toys will be investigated to find out if he broke ministerial rules.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, revealed that Mark Garnier, a frontbencher at the Department for International Trade, is facing a probe launched by the Cabinet Office.

Mr Hunt also announced that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will today write to John Bercow, the Commons speaker, to ask for his advice on how to tackle sexual harassment in parliament amid a growing number of allegations against MPs.

Mr Garnier’s former secretary Caroline Edmondson told ‘The Mail on Sunday’ that the married MP had given her the money to buy two vibrators at a Soho sex shop.

Ms Edmondson, who has since left to work for another MP, said that on another occasion, in front of witnesses, he called her “sugar t**s”.

The ‘Mail’ said Mr Garnier had admitted the claims, saying: “I’m not going to deny it, because I’m not going to be dishonest. I’m going to have to take it on the chin.”

Mr Hunt told the ‘Andrew Marr Show’ on BBC One that the Cabinet Office had launched an investigation into the incidents, which are believed to have happened in 2010, to see if the Ministerial Code of Conduct had been breached.

He said: “These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable and the Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation as to whether there has been a breach of the ministerial code in this particular case.”