DUP blames Green for border fiasco as former Yard chief demands retraction on ‘lying’ claim

Christopher Hope, Martin Evans

Jack Maidment

DAMIAN GREEN, Theresa May’s embattled deputy, was blamed last night for a breakdown in communications with the Democratic Unionist Party that has thrown the Brexit talks into chaos.

The Prime Minister’s plans to agree the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union on Monday were thrown into turmoil when the DUP said it could not accept plans to treat Northern Ireland differently to the UK after leaving the EU in 2019.

Yesterday DUP figures laid part of the blame at the door of Mr Green, the First Secretary of State who is already mired in a Whitehall investigation about his personal behaviour.

The news came as Bob Quick, the former senior Metropolitan Police officer, threatened Mr Green with legal action after the Cabinet minister accused him of lying about finding “vast amounts” of pornography on a computer he used.

Mr Quick, a former Scotland Yard counter-terror chief, said everything he had said had been “accurate, in good faith… and in the public interest” and called on Mr Green to retract the allegations. In a statement issued by his solicitors, Mr Quick said he was considering bringing legal action against the First Secretary of State.

Mr Green has dismissed the porn allegations as “false, disreputable political smears from a discredited police officer acting in flagrant breach of his duty” and “little more than an unscrupulous character assassination”.

Mr Green is the chairman of a key coordination committee, which is meant to ensure that the DUP MPS are briefed on forthcoming government plans. However, senior DUP sources were appalled that Mr Green made no attempt to brief them on the text of the Brexit deal before they were sent it on Monday.

One source said it showed how the DUP was missing Gavin Williamson, the former chief whip who had close links to the DUP and is now Defence Secretary.

The senior DUP source said: “Damian has not shown any greater or lesser involvement than he has always done. Gavin is a good political operator.”

Last night a source close to Mr Green hit back, saying: “It has never been Damian Green’s job at any single point to brief the DUP on the border issue.”