Theresa’s Santa sack
PM’s porn lies pal gets Christmas bonus .. £17,000 from taxpayer
PORN shame MP Damian Green will pocket a £17,000 tax-free pay-off despite being axed over his sleaze scandal.
The First Secretary of State was sacked by Theresa May because he “lied” about material allegedly discovered on his computer, Health Minister Jeremy Hunt said yesterday.
But it has been revealed that Green is set to walk away with a quarter of his taxpayer-funded ministerial salary of £67,505 – a bumper Christmas gift of £16,876.
Cabinet Office rules state that senior ministers who lose their jobs are entitled to a quarter of their final salary as a pay-off.
Labour MP John Mann said: “The public will be aghast at a man who lied in such a senior role getting paid more than many people earn in a whole year.”
Green will keep his £74,962 salary as an MP – but constituents have demanded that he resigns immediately as MP for Ashford in Kent.
Peter Edwards, 70, said: “You can’t mislead people. I have met him before and didn’t think much of him. And I would not vote for him now.”
Priti Patel, who resigned as International Development Secretary last month over secret meetings with Israeli officials, was also entitled to the big-money payout.
Neither Green nor Patel commented yesterday on whether they were keeping their pay-offs.
Green was fired after a Cabinet Office inquiry found it was “inaccurate and misleading” for him to claim police had not told him porn had been found on the computer. His denials – rather
than anything he was alleged to have done – led to his downfall because they breached the ministerial code.
In his resignation letter, Green admitted his lawyers had been informed by Met Police lawyers about their initial discovery in 2008 and the police had also raised the matter with him in a phone call in 2013.
Former senior policeman Bob Quick, who was branded “tainted, untrustworthy and discredited” after he made claims about alleged porn on Green’s PC, said he will continue to “seek a retraction” from the MP.
On a visit to Poland yesterday, the Prime Minister tried to deflect the focus away from her Cabinet turmoil.
May said she expected leaks by ex-police officers in relation to Green to be “properly investigated” and “taken seriously”.
The two ex-police officers who leaked details of the alleged discovery of pornographic material on the Commons computer of Green have been referred to the data protection watchdog. Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “We are disappointed to see that it appears that former colleagues have put into the public domain via the media material that they appear to have had access to as part of a confidential investigation.”
It emerged last night that MP Mark Garnier, who told his secretary to buy sex toys and called her “sugar t*ts”, will keep his job because the alleged harassment came before he held his post.