Deputy forced out over porn scandal
BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May forced her most senior minister, Damian Green, to resign on Wednesday after an internal investigation found that he had made misleading comments about pornography found on computers in his parliamentary office.
The resignation of one of Mrs May’s most trusted allies who had helped pacify her deeply divided party, is a blow for her as she navigates the final year of tortuous Brexit negotiations before Britain’s exit from the European Union in March 2019.
Mr Green, who voted to stay in the EU, was appointed as first secretary of state just six months ago in a bid to shore up Mrs May’s premiership in the wake of her disastrous bet on a June snap election which lost her party its majority in parliament.
But Mr Green’s future was thrust into doubt when the Sunday Times newspaper reported last month that police in 2008 had found pornography on his office computers in the Houses of Parliament. In response, Mr Green said that the story was untrue.
A review, requested by Mrs May and conducted by a senior government official, concluded that Mr Green’s statements which suggested he was not aware that indecent material had been found on the computers, were “inaccurate and misleading”.
The review, a summary of which was distributed by Mrs May’s Downing Street office, found that he had breached rules governing the behaviour of ministers.
“I regret that I’ve been asked to resign from the government following breaches of the Ministerial Code, for which I apologise,” Mr Green said in a letter to Mrs May, who said she had accepted his resignation with deep regret.
Mr Green, 61, added that he did not download or view pornography on his parliamentary computers. He said that he should have been clearer about his statements after the story broke.
He is Mrs May’s third cabinet minister to resign in recent weeks after her defence secretary quit in November citing past conduct that fell below the required standards.
Mrs May’s aid secretary resigned a week later after admitting to holding undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials.
During the turmoil which followed Mrs May’s botched election, she turned to Mr Green, a friend and ally from their days at Oxford, to stabilise her premiership and appease those within the Conservative Party who wanted her to quit.
One of his key roles was to act as a conduit for disgruntled party members who felt they had been ignored in Mrs May’s election campaign. He sought to help her to shed the image of a distant leader who only listens to those in her inner circle.
“Its another blow for May but it is not deadly in any way at all,” said Anand Menon, professor of European politics at King’s College London. “She has lost her soul mate in cabinet but this is not the end of Prime Minister May.”
“May is surviving not because of Damian Green but because there are sufficient MPs in her party who don’t want to have a leadership election while Brexit is going on and that fundamental calculation has not changed,” he said.