PM’s chief of staff ‘regrets’ clicking on lesbian porn tweet
Gavin Barwell said he ‘regrets’ replying to the Xrated message on his official social media account.
explicit images involved women dressed as schoolgirls performing sex acts and another adult image.
The former MP also apparently retweeted a hardcore pornography video.
The tweet was sent at 9.21pm on Monday and could have been seen on his timeline by any of his 22,600 followers, who include Cabinet ministers and senior Tory staffers.
It stayed online for a day and a half before being deleted yesterday morning. a Theresa May’s chief of staff has been left red-faced after replying to a Twitter post showing pornography. No. 10 source said: ‘Gavin Barwell replied to this tweet which was in his timeline, in error. he has deleted the reply and regrets the embarrassment this has caused.’
Cambridge- educated Mr Barwell, a married father of three sons, lost his Croydon Central seat in last year’s snap election. Mrs May brought him back in to beef up her top team after she was forced to sack her two most trusted advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona hill after the Tory poll disaster.
The error comes in the wake of the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, which saw sir Michael Fallon and Damian Green ousted from the Cabinet over allegations of misbehavior.
Mr Green, one of the PM’s closest allies, was sacked for lying about claims porn was found on his office computer in a police raid in 2008.
Defence secretary sir Michael was forced out over allegations he lunged at a young female political reporter several years ago. and former Tory minister Mark Garnier was forced to apologise after it emerged he called his secretary ‘sugar t**s’ and sent her out to buy him a sex toy.
It is not the first time Mr Barwell, 46, has been embarrassed by his online activities. In 2013 he criticised Labour after he claimed an education announcement had appeared next to an online advert that said ‘date arab girls’.
It later emerged the ad was automatically generated by Google software.
It is unclear how the explicit tweets appeared on Mr Barwell’s Twitter account as he does not follow any users linked to sexual content. he does not appear to have tweeted about explicit material before – although he has previously updated his followers about a visit to a Nandos restaurant. It is not known whether he was using a personal or work phone.
‘Women dressed as schoolgirls’