I did not have porn on office computer says PM’s deputy
THERESA May’s deputy was locked in a furious row with a former police chief last night over claims ‘extreme pornography’ was found on one of his office computers.
Damian Green angrily denied the claim and accused ex-Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Bob Quick of a ‘disreputable political smear’ after the claim leaked out.
Mr Quick will today give evidence to a Cabinet Office inquiry investigating a claim of sexual harassment against Mr Green.
But last night he denied being the source of the leak, which led to claims yesterday that pornography was found on a computer in Mr Green’s parliamentary office during a controversial raid ordered by Mr Quick in 2008.
The row came as Home Secretary Amber Rudd insisted the Government would survive if Mr Green was forced to resign.
Some senior Tories believe the resignation of Mr Green, who is Mrs May’s closest political ally, could tear the Government apart.
But asked if the Government would collapse, she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: ‘Absolutely not.
‘I think it is something that will take place in terms of clearing out Westminster of that sort of behaviour, and I think that Westminster afterwards, including the Government, will be better for it.’
She added: ‘I know that the Cabinet Office is going to be looking at this tomorrow along with the wider inquiry about Damian, and I do think that we shouldn’t rush to allege anything until that inquiry has taken place.’
In a strongly-worded statement yesterday, Mr Green said the pornography claim was ‘completely untrue’ and described Mr Quick as a ‘tainted and untrustworthy source’.
The First Secretary of State
‘Tainted and untrustworthy’
described Mr Quick, former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, as ‘discredited’, and said he had ‘tried to cause me political damage by leaking false information about the raid on my parliamentary office’.
He claimed Mr Quick harboured ‘deep resentment’ against the Conservative Party over the backlash that followed the botched raid on Mr Green’s office.
He added: ‘More importantly, the police have never suggested to me that improper material was found on my parliamentary computer, nor did I have a “private” computer, as has been claimed.
‘The allegations about the material and computer, now nine years old, are false, disreputable political smears from a discredited police officer acting in flagrant breach of his duty to keep the details of police investigations confidential, and amount to little more than an unscrupulous character assassination.’
Despite the denial, Home Secretary Miss Rudd yesterday confirmed that the Cabinet Office inquiry into Mr Green’s conduct would be widened to look at the pornography allegations.
Mr Green is facing investigation over claims last week that he made unwanted advances towards Tory activist and journalist Kate Maltby, including touching her knee in a London pub and sending her suggestive text messages.
Mr Green has angrily denied the claims. Allies say other text messages show the pair enjoyed a friendly relationship after the alleged incident in 2015.
One friend claimed that Miss Maltby may have mistaken the brush of a tablecloth on her knee for his hand.
Miss Maltby yesterday said a number of people were willing to come forward and tell the inquiry she had complained to them of Mr Green’s ‘sexual advances’. And she mocked the idea that she had somehow mistaken a tablecloth for his hand.
She said: ‘This is the only story in a very difficult week that has given me reason to crack a smile.
‘Women know the difference between a hand and a tablecloth.’
Tory MP Heidi Allen joined former business minister Anna Soubry in calling for Mr Green to step aside
‘Nothing to worry about’
from his job while allegations against him are investigated.
‘In the sort of companies I used to work in, that would be completely normal,’ Miss Allen told ITV’s Peston on Sunday show.
She added: ‘If you’re innocent and you have nothing to worry about, then let the process take its natural course, and the right will come out in the end.’
Mr Quick faced intense criticism over the raid of Mr Green’s parliamentary office in 2008, which was conducted without a search warrant.
The search was launched as part of an investigation into the leak of secret Home Office documents.
An official review of the operation and Mr Green’s arrest later found it was ‘not proportionate’.
Mr Quick resigned his post with the Metropolitan Police in 2009 after a major blunder in which he was photographed entering Downing Street carrying a secret briefing note carrying details of a major antiterrorist operation.
Last night he denied being the source of the latest leak about the raid on Mr Green’s office.
He said the Sunday Times had published ‘the partial content of a confidential draft witness statement that I prepared with my lawyers, in consultation with the Metropolitan Police, for the Leveson Inquiry, six years ago’.
He added: ‘I take the allegations that I played any part in the disclosure of this document to the Sunday Times extremely seriously and will be considering legal action against those responsible.’
Mr Quick confirmed he had agreed to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry into Mr Green’s conduct, which is being led by Sue Gray, director-general of the Government’s ‘propriety and ethics team’.