British PM May forces her own deputy to resign after pornography scandal

[webfact]

British PM May forces her own deputy to resign after pornography scandal

By Guy Faulconbridge and William James

 

FILE PHOTO: Damian Green, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May's deputy, leaves his home in London, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May forced her most senior minister, Damian Green, to resign on Thursday 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 May's most trusted allies who had helped pacify her deeply divided party, is a blow for May as she navigates the final year of tortuous Brexit negotiations before Britain's exit from the European Union in March 2019.

 

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 May's premiership in the wake of her disastrous bet on a June snap election which lost her party its majority in parliament.

 

But 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, Green said that the story was untrue.

 

A review, requested by May and conducted by a senior government official, concluded that 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 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," Green said in a letter to May, who said she had accepted his resignation with deep regret.

 

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 May's third cabinet minister to resign in recent weeks after May's defence secretary quit in November citing past conduct that fell below the required standards.

 

May's aid minister resigned a week later after admitting to holding undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials.

 

MAY'S PREMIERSHIP

 

During the turmoil which followed May's botched election, she turned to 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 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.

 

The internal investigation found that his conduct as a minister was generally "professional and proper" but found two statements made by Green on Nov. 4 and 11 to be inaccurate and misleading.

 

In the statements he had suggested he was not aware that indecent material was found on parliamentary computers in his office.

"These statements ... constitute breaches of the Ministerial Code. Mr Green accepts this," the report summary said.

 

It also addressed allegations, made by the daughter of a family friend, that Green had made an unwanted advance towards her during a social meeting in 2015, had suggested that this might further her career, and later had sent her an inappropriate text message.

 

The report said it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of Green’s behaviour in this instance, though the investigation found allegations to be plausible.

 

Green said in his resignation letter that he did not recognise the account of events, but apologised to the woman, academic and critic Kate Maltby, for making her feel uncomfortable.

 

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Kate Holton and Susan Thomas)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-21

[F4UCorsair]

Another grub pays the price, as he should.

 

I'm astounded that people are prepared to risk a career for a bit of porn, or fancying their chances with a colleague.

[the guest]

At least Theresa May had the guts to sack her deputy. I have a lot of admiration of her leadership skills.

[Emster23]

 No fan of May & Co., but this is absurd. Unless he was minister of culture and technology, looking at porno is hardly grounds for a fast exit. Maybe he could claim he needed to view from time to time to stay awake.

50% of men who go online look at porno, and the rest are liars. I recall reading that Utah, home of the very conservative Mormons, has the highest porn viewing in USA...

[RuamRudy]

24 minutes ago, the guest said:

At least Theresa May had the guts to sack her deputy. I have a lot of admiration of her leadership skills.

The guts? He has been limping along for months without any sign of her taking action. And what about the 36 other MPs on the list? She has never looked so weak - and that is saying something.

[RuamRudy]

23 minutes ago, Emster23 said:

 No fan of May & Co., but this is absurd. Unless he was minister of culture and technology, looking at porno is hardly grounds for a fast exit. Maybe he could claim he needed to view from time to time to stay awake.

50% of men who go online look at porno, and the rest are liars. I recall reading that Utah, home of the very conservative Mormons, has the highest porn viewing in USA...

I think that there were two factors in particular: firstly, that he was doing it on government (i.e. taxpayer owned) property, and in paid time, and also that the pornography he was looking at became, very shortly afterwards, illegal to possess in the UK. This allowed speculation as to the nature of the images found - apparently not your regular Playboy fare. 

[citybiker]

IIRC it’s the conclusion of the inquiry that led to PMTM having no choice but sack DG.

Misleading the inquiry is breach of the ‘ministerial code’.



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[Ulic]

1 hour ago, Emster23 said:

 No fan of May & Co., but this is absurd. Unless he was minister of culture and technology, looking at porno is hardly grounds for a fast exit. Maybe he could claim he needed to view from time to time to stay awake.

50% of men who go online look at porno, and the rest are liars. I recall reading that Utah, home of the very conservative Mormons, has the highest porn viewing in USA...

The issue was not that porn was found on government computers in his office

but that he lied about it after. Another case of the coverup being worse than the crime.

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The report said it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of Green’s behaviour in this instance, though the investigation found allegations to be plausible.

 

Green said in his resignation letter that he did not recognise the account of events, but apologised to the woman, academic and critic Kate Maltby, for making her feel uncomfortable.

So, another victim of making a woman apparently "feel uncomfortable". I was made more than "uncomfortable" by a lot of bullying women in my career, but being a mere male and therefore of little worth, no one will be resigning because of it.

If he didn't recognise the account of events why did he apologise? If he isn't man enough to stand up against allegations, perhaps he should resign.

 

As for the headline, he wasn't sacked for "porn", which is legal in the UK, he was sacked for lying about it, and if he downloaded it on a government computer, he should have been sacked for gross stupidity. Everyone with a brain cell knows not to do that.

 

PS about "legal in the UK". I just checked and not sure about that anymore. The law may have changed since I was in the UK.

Seems the world is being taken over by the wowsers. It's OK for a child to watch people being killed in horrible ways many times a day on tv, but looking at people doing something enjoyable is apparently a crime worse than torture ( which children can also watch on tv ). Mentally sick people are taking over everywhere.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by thaibeachlovers

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, RuamRudy said:

I think that there were two factors in particular: firstly, that he was doing it on government (i.e. taxpayer owned) property, and in paid time, and also that the pornography he was looking at became, very shortly afterwards, illegal to possess in the UK. This allowed speculation as to the nature of the images found - apparently not your regular Playboy fare. 

Playboy never did porn. They do erotica. People that can't tell the difference are ignorant.

Correct about the government thing.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 hours ago, F4UCorsair said:

Another grub pays the price, as he should.

 

I'm astounded that people are prepared to risk a career for a bit of porn, or fancying their chances with a colleague.

Never underestimate the stupidity of men in power. Had he kept his viewing to home nothing would have happened.

[RuamRudy]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Playboy never did porn. They do erotica. People that can't tell the difference are ignorant.

 

Ignorant or simply less of an expert in pornography? What about people who construct sentences with the incorrect pronoun - can they also be considered ignorant?

[theguyfromanotherforum]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Playboy never did porn. They do erotica. 

 

Yes, and Hugh Heffner died a virgin.

Edited December 21, 2017 by theguyfromanotherforum

[JulesMad]

The difference between a deputy with a little bit of porn on a computer and a pussy-grabbing president.... Is that the difference between UK and usa?

[Basil B]

55 minutes ago, JulesMad said:

The difference between a deputy with a little bit of porn on a computer and a pussy-grabbing president.... Is that the difference between UK and usa?

As I recall there were other allegations of a physical nature...

 

Took May a long time to out him.

 

What annoys me is it took two ex Met whistle blowers who now face prosecution for pointing out that a minister is a bare faced liar. 

 

Anyway hope it was "Merry Xmas here is your P45"

Edited December 21, 2017 by Basil B

[evadgib]

59 minutes ago, Basil B said:

What annoys me is it took two ex Met whistle blowers who now face prosecution for pointing out that a minister is a bare faced liar.

Quite right too. They revealed confidential information about legal activity gleaned during a criminal investigation, something we (public) didn't need to know although I'm amazed at the stupidity of the aptly-named GREEN who surely knew all HoC comms/devices are monitored and subject to data-related scrutiny.

 

I wonder what else he was up to...? 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by evadgib

[dunroaming]

4 hours ago, Ulic said:

The issue was not that porn was found on government computers in his office

but that he lied about it after. Another case of the coverup being worse than the crime.

Yes that is correct.  May has been under pressure for some time to sack him but I think she and him thought they could ride it out.  Apparently the porn was pretty heavy duty stuff and that is why it was reported.  The odd bit of titillation wouldn't have been an issue at all.

[stevenl]

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

So, another victim of making a woman apparently "feel uncomfortable". I was made more than "uncomfortable" by a lot of bullying women in my career, but being a mere male and therefore of little worth, no one will be resigning because of it.

If he didn't recognise the account of events why did he apologise? If he isn't man enough to stand up against allegations, perhaps he should resign.

 

As for the headline, he wasn't sacked for "porn", which is legal in the UK, he was sacked for lying about it, and if he downloaded it on a government computer, he should have been sacked for gross stupidity. Everyone with a brain cell knows not to do that.

 

PS about "legal in the UK". I just checked and not sure about that anymore. The law may have changed since I was in the UK.

Seems the world is being taken over by the wowsers. It's OK for a child to watch people being killed in horrible ways many times a day on tv, but looking at people doing something enjoyable is apparently a crime worse than torture ( which children can also watch on tv ). Mentally sick people are taking over everywhere.

 

 

I would not say 'apparently', but 'according to the accused'.

As you continue yourself, the real reason was not 'making feel a woman uncomfortable'.

[Orac]

Seems he took the job of being the PMs right-hand man a bit too literally.


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[Basil B]

7 hours ago, evadgib said:

Quite right too. They revealed confidential information about legal activity gleaned during a criminal investigation, something we (public) didn't need to know although I'm amazed at the stupidity of the aptly-named GREEN who surely knew all HoC comms/devices are monitored and subject to data-related scrutiny.

 

I wonder what else he was up to...? 

 

 

Fact was he should have been disciplined at the time...

 

Seems although the actual matter being investigated, the leaking of confidential information that lead to DG being arrested (on suspicion of "aiding and abetting misconduct in public office" and "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office"), his offices, home and car being searched lead to the porn being found on his computer but there was insufficient evidence to find him complacent of "aiding and abetting misconduct in public office" and "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office".

 

What annoys me so much when he stood up in the commons an denied having porn on his computer there were many top Tories who knew he was lying because they had been informed by the Met at the time and did nothing.

[manarak]

he should just have said "so what?"

 

lying is never good

Edited December 21, 2017 by manarak

[Basil B]

Seems a lot of Tories think such behaviour is OK...

 

And now we see another minster who supposedly used derogatory language to his secretary and asked her to buy sex toys let off... 

[Rhys]

...so the USA  PRO  "I was abused and harrassed XXX "  Puritanicals made their way across the pond...

Edited December 21, 2017 by Rhys

[RuamRudy]

An uncited snippet of info in this morning's Popbitch mail-out (a weekly gossip email for us 70s kids to feel both nostalgic and superior at the same time):

 

"In 2016, there were 113,208 recorded attempts to access pornography from Westminster computers."

[Kadilo]

The guts? He has been limping along for months without any sign of her taking action. And what about the 36 other MPs on the list? She has never looked so weak - and that is saying something.

Surprise surprise it's come out this morning that Maltby reported him to no. 10 so she must of been aware. Explains her panic sacking.


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[evadgib]

4 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

"In 2016, there were 113,208 recorded attempts to access pornography from Westminster computers."

Hislop awaits a reply to his FoI request as I type! 

[thaibeachlovers]

5 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

An uncited snippet of info in this morning's Popbitch mail-out (a weekly gossip email for us 70s kids to feel both nostalgic and superior at the same time):

 

"In 2016, there were 113,208 recorded attempts to access pornography from Westminster computers."

No doubt from ministers anxious to find sites to ban the rest of the populace from seeing, because as we all know allowing children to see people getting killed and maimed is OK, but seeing people having sex is really, really bad for everyone.