Theresa ‘knew of sex claims’

THE Tory activist who accused Damian Green of sending a suggestive text message and touching her knee has claimed Theresa May knew of the incidents more than a year ago.

Kate Maltby made the allegations about the former First Secretary in an article after Mr Green was named in the Westminster sexual harassment dossier.

Last night she said that the Prime Minister was aware of a ‘pattern of behaviour’ months before she made Mr Green her effective deputy.

Miss Maltby, 31, told The Daily Telegraph she had informed a Downing Street aide in September 2016 that Mr Green had touched her leg and sent a suggestive text.

She said Mrs May’s aide then told her the incidents were part of a ‘pattern’, before adding: ‘The Prime Minister knows.’

Mr Green, who was work and pensions secretary at the time, was promoted to First Secretary of State nine months later.

Miss Maltby’s allegation was considered as part of the official Whitehall investigation into Mr Green by Sue Gray, the head of propriety and ethics at the Cabinet Office.

The inquiry did not present any conclusions about whether Mr Green had acted inappropriately but did conclude that Miss Maltby was a ‘plausible’ witness.

Writing previously in The Times, Miss Maltby claimed Mr Green, now 61, had put a ‘fleeting hand against [her] knee’ and told her his ‘wife was very understanding’.

She claimed Mr Green, who was not a minister at the time, texted her in another incident, after a photograph of her wearing a corset was published.

She said the message read: ‘Long time no see. But having admired you in a corset in my favourite tabloid I feel impelled to ask if you are free for a drink anytime?’.

Mr Green denied the claims at the time of the article’s publication.

Miss Maltby said yesterday: ‘The Prime Minister could have acted decisively when this scandal broke and made changes in Westminster, to demonstrate in her treatment of me that whistleblowers would be treated with respect – but she did not do so.

‘I told my story about Damian Green as part of a movement to encourage other women to expose every day sexual harassment.

‘I only ever wanted to make Westminster a place where people feel safer speaking out.

She also claimed she had been unable to work during the inquiry.

No 10 sources denied that the aide had made the admission to Miss Maltby or that Mrs May was told about Mr Green.

‘A fleeting hand against her knee’