Damian Green inquiry may never be published, prompting cover-up fears

Spokesman for Theresa May refuses three times to say whether the report will ever be released

AN OFFICIAL Whitehall report into Damian Green’s behaviour might never be published, prompting fears of a cover-up, it has emerged.

Mr Green – the de facto deputy Prime Minister – is fighting to save his political career after being accused of making inappropriate advances towards Kate Maltby, a writer who is 30 years his junior.

Mr Green, the First Secretary of State, is also facing claims that pornography was found by police on an office computer he used in 2008.

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, asked Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, three weeks ago to “establish the facts and report back as soon as possible” about the claims.

The investigation and report is expected to be completed next week and handed to Mrs May, who will decide whether, and in what form, it can be published. There are already fears that the Government will seek to publish it on a busy news day to lessen its impact.

The Prime Minister’s deputy official spokesman yesterday refused three times to say if Mrs May would publish the report into Mr Green’s behaviour.

He said: “I am not going to prejudge until the investigation is concluded. Once we have details of when it has finished, we will update you in the normal way.”

Miss Maltby, 31, a writer, has alleged Mr Green, 61, touched her knee at a meeting, discussed sexual affairs in Parliament and sent her a “sexually suggestive text message” last year. She did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Mr Green declined to comment.

Last weekend Mr Green appeared to retreat from a previous outright denial about extreme pornography being found on one of his office computers. On Nov 4 he said that “the police have never suggested to me that improper material was found on my Parliamentary computer, nor did I have a ‘private’ computer as has been claimed”.

However, on Nov 12 Sir Paul Stephenson, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, said he was informed that detectives had found pornographic material on a work computer in the raid.

That led to Mr Green issuing a second statement last Friday, this time appearing to concede that pornography had been found, but denying that he had downloaded it or viewed it at all.

Number 10 also said that a Cabinet Office investigation into whether Mark Garnier, a Government minister, asked his secretary to buy sex toys for him when he was an MP is “ongoing”.

A Cabinet Office spokesman declined to comment on either investigation.