May orders enquiry on minister sex claims
A government minister faces an official Cabinet Office investigation into claims of inappropriate conduct towards a member of his Commons staff.
Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the inquiry into whether International Trade Minister Mark Garnier breached ministerial rules following allegations that he used derogatory language to his secretary and asked her to buy sex toys.
The Prime Minister has also written to Commons Speaker John Bercow, asking for the establishment of a new grievance procedure to deal with complaints of misconduct at Westminster. The move comes amid intense speculation that other MPS have been involved in inappropriate behaviour towards women in the wake of the allegations about dis- graced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The decision to investigate Mr Garnier was disclosed by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt during a television interview on BBC1’S The Andrew Marr Show.
“These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Garnier reportedly admitted asking his then-secretary, Caroline Edmondson, to buy two vibrators and calling her “sugar tits” in front of witnesses.
“I’m not going to deny it, because I’m not going to be dishonest. I’m going to have to take it on the chin,” he was quoted as saying.
Ms Edmondson, who has since left to work for another MP, told the paper that he gave her the money to buy the vibrators at a Soho sex shop – one for his wife and one for a woman in his Wyre Forest constituency office.
In a separate case, former cabinet minister Stephen Crabb reportedly admitted sending “explicit” messages to a 19-year-old woman he interviewed for a job in 2013, when he was a Welsh minister. The married MP was quoted as saying he had been “foolish” but that there had been no sexual contact. Mr Crabb resigned last year as Work and Pensions Secretary following reports of a similar incident.