Porn row minister: I’ll get by with help from friends
Brexit chief will rally support
EMBATTLED First Secretary Damian Green is counting on David Davis to drum up Cabinet support to help him keep his job.
Theresa May’s deputy has been hit by fresh allegations concerning the thousands of pornographic images found on a computer during a police raid on his Westminster office in 2008.
His fate will now be decided by the PM after a Cabinet Office investigation reports next week.
But Mr Green, 61, has been touched that Brexit Secretary Davis, his old boss in opposition, even threatened to quit himself if the First Secretary was fired.
A close friend of Mr Green said: “He’s very grateful for all the support he has received from colleagues, constituents and the public.” Mr Green suffered a new blow on Friday when former counter terror officer Neil Lewis said he was “in no doubt whatsoever” that Mr Green had been looking at adult sex films.
He also told the BBC he was “shocked” at the amount of porn found. Mr Lewis examined the Commons computer after the raid to investigate a Home Office leak. Mr Green has consistently denied downloading or looking at porn.
Yesterday Mr Lewis was criticised by former Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, who said the police should stay out of politics. Sir Peter told Radio 4: “It is very dangerous territory for a police officer to be making judgments about whether a politician is lying or not. Police should also be extremely careful about making judgments about other people’s morality when it is not a matter of crime.
“It is something really central to our democracy that the police are not involved in politics.”
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve also told the BBC: “It has the smack of the police state about it. We give the police powers that other people do not have. They are not and must not be allowed to abuse those powers.”
But Mr Lewis was backed by former Gloucestershire Chief Constable Tim Brain, who said: “Let’s think if we are happy that MPs can have this kind of material on an official computer.”