WHAT A SAD WAY TO GO
May’s deputy Damian Green forced out for lying about computer porn ++ PM furious at Commons raid and police leaks that led to his downfall
DAMIAN Green was forced to resign last night after a sleaze inquiry found he had failed to tell the truth about pornography found on his computer.
The Cabinet Office investigation said he had issued two ‘inaccurate and misleading’ statements, denying he knew about the discovery made in a botched police raid on his Commons office in 2008.
Sir Alex Allen, Theresa May’s adviser on ministerial interests, said the lack of candour amounted to two breaches of the ministerial code. This left the PM with no choice but to ask her friend and deputy to resign.
Mr Green, who was first secretary of state, became the third Cabinet minister to resign in two months, following the exits of Sir Michael Fallon and Priti Patel.
His departure is a bitter blow to the PM, who relied heavily on her old university friend. In a letter to Mr Green last night, she said she was ‘extremely sad’ about his departure.
Mrs May also rounded on the police over the role played by former detectives. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has also condemned the conduct of the ex- officers, which is now the subject of an inquiry.
A friend of Mr Green said the police had ‘got their man after a nine-year vendetta’.
The inquiry into Mr Green’s conduct was launched on November 1 following disputed claims by Tory activist Kate Maltby that he
had made unwanted advances on her. The sleaze inquiry said Miss Maltby’s claims were ‘plausible’, but said it was ‘not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness’ of his behaviour.
In his resignation letter last night, Mr Green said he did not recognise Miss Maltby’s account of their meeting in a London pub in 2015, when she claims he touched her knee and made suggestive comments.
But he added: ‘I clearly made her feel uncomfortable and for this I apologise.’ Mrs May said Mr Green was right to concede this point.
His departure robs the PM of her closest political ally. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has been tipped as a possible replacement as first secretary of state, but government sources last night indicated that a reshuffle could be postponed until the new year. Although Mr Green does not run a ministry he was a central figure, heading a number of Cabinet committees and being a member of Mrs May’s inner Brexit ‘War Cabinet’.
Mr Green was a leading Remainer and his departure will tip the balance in the Cabinet in favour of the Brexiteers.
Brexit Secretary David Davis had urged Mrs May not to allow the police to claim Mr Green’s scalp. Aides insisted he would not be resigning in protest, but many Tories are furious about what they see as a vendetta by former detectives to destroy a serving cabinet minister.
Accusations about computer pornography were made by former Met Police chief Bob Quick, who ordered a raid on Mr Green’s Commons office in 2008.
He was later backed up by another former Scotland Yard detective Neil Lewis, who said he had no doubt that Mr Green himself had downloaded the pornography, which he said ran to ‘thousands’ of images.
The discovery had no relevance to the police inquiry at the time, which was focused on uncovering the source of leaked Home Office material being passed to Mr Green, who was then shadow immigration minister.
It also had no relevance to the claims made by Miss Maltby. None of the allegations related to Mr Green’s time as a minister. But his failure to tell the truth about them broke the ministerial code, which requires office holders to be truthful at all times.
When Mr Quick’s allegations were published last month, Mr Green issued an angry statement, saying: ‘This story is completely untrue and comes from a tainted and untrustworthy source.’
Mr Green said the police had ‘never suggested to me that improper material was found on my parliamentary computer.’
In a second statement issued a week later, Mr Green said: ‘I reiterate that no allegations about the presence of improper material on my parliamentary computers have ever been put to me or to the parliamentary authorities by the police.
‘I can only assume that they are being made now, nine years later, for ulterior motives.’
But the inquiry, led by the Cabinet Office’s director of propriety and ethics, Sue Gray, found that he had been informed about the discovery at the time.
In his letter, Mr Green acknowledged the police had told his lawyers about the find in 2008.
Officers also raised the issue with him in a phone call in 2013. He said he now accepted he ‘should have been clear’ he knew the police had found pornography. He added: ‘I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point.’
But Mr Green said he remained clear that he did not download or view the material discovered by the police, adding: ‘ The unfounded and deeply hurtful allegations that were being levelled at me were distressing both to me and my family and it is right that these are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s professional standards department.’
Miss Maltby last night declined to comment, but her parents, Colin and Victoria Maltby, issued a statement saying: ‘ We are not surprised to find that the inquiry found Mr Green to have been untruthful as a minister, nor that they found our daughter to be a plausible witness.’