May: Police must answer questions
However, while the deal will allow Toys R Us to stay afloat, at least 26 loss-making stores will shut, meaning up to 800 jobs are set to be lost.
Consultations with employees are set to start in the new year. A CONSERVATIVE MP’s chief of staff wiped tears from his eyes as he was acquitted of raping a young parliamentary worker in his boss’s Westminster office. Samuel Armstrong, 24, was accused of attacking the woman when she fell asleep after a night drinking in the Houses of Parliament.
Armstrong, arrested after the woman was captured on CCTV running through the corridors of Westminster in tears in the early hours of October 14 last year, insisted they had consensual sex. THERESA May has said she expects the leak of information by a former senior police officer about the discovery of pornography on the Commons computer of Damian Green to be “properly investigated”.
The Prime Minister, speaking during a visit to Poland, said she shared concerns about the way details of a 2008 police inquiry into Home Office leaks had entered the public domain.
“I share the concerns that have been raised across the political spectrum about comments that were made by a former police officer and I expect that issue to be properly investigated, to be taken seriously and to be properly looked at,” she said.
Her comments came as Scotland Yard announced it had referred former assistant commissioner Bob Quick and a second retired officer, Neil Lewis, to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) over possible breaches of data protection laws.
Mrs May sacked Mr Green as First Secretary of State after he admitted making “misleading” statements in relation to the claims. However, there was anger among Tory MPs at the way the two officers had apparently used confidential information obtained during the course of a police inquiry to damage Mr Green.
Conservative MP Chris Philp said: “They should be investigated for misconduct in public office. That is a criminal offence.
“What they have done is completely wrong. It undermines trust in the police. How can any of us trust giving information to the police if senior officers leak in this way?”
Appearing before the London Assembly, Commissioner Cressida Dick said that after taking legal advice from a QC, they had concluded that the ICO was the right body to take the inquiry forward.
“We are disappointed to see that it appears former colleagues have put into the public domain via the media material they appear to have had access to as part of the confidential investigation,” she said.
“I have a very strong view that the responsibility that goes with being a police officer or a member of police staff is very clear in relation to people’s personal information.”
In a statement, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said their investigation would look at whether the individuals concerned had “acted unlawfully by retaining or disclosing personal data”.
Meanwhile, Mrs May could not help smiling as an interpreter for Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawieck referred to her as “Madam Brexit”.
A passage of Mr Morawiecki’s opening speech was translated as: “It’s very important for us that this co-operation, even though it will be based soon on different rules and different regulations than it has been so far because of Brexit, because as Madam Brexit said, Brexit is Brexit...”
Mrs May was then seen smirking as Mr Morawiecki went on: “But regardless of all that, we all realise how important the co-operation in defence, internal affairs, economic affairs, financial affairs is.”