The first secretary of state, Damian Green has been sacked from his position after admitting that he lied about the existence of pornographic material on his House of Commons computer in 2008.
The cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood led an investigation and found that Damian Green's intense and adamant denials after a newspaper had reported that porn was found on his computer were “inaccurate and misleading”.
Prime Minister Theresa May had brought Green into Downing Street in June's general election to help her reinstate her authority after her majority was wiped out in the election. Green is the third cabinet minister to step down following the departures of Priti Patel and Michael Fallon.
In Green's resignation letter, he maintained that he did not “download or view” the pornographic material, but added that he “should have been clear in my press statements”, that his lawyers were informed about the existence of the content in 2008, and also discussed it with the police in 2013.
Responding to his resignation, Theresa May expressed that she was “extremely sad” about the departure of Green from her government. She also added that it was “with deep regret and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years that I asked you to resign from the government and have accepted your resignation.”
Sir Jeremy Heywood found that Green had breached the ministerial code twice as his deceptive comments had fallen short of the “seven principles of public life”, one being honesty.
Heywood was unable to reach a conclusion on a separate allegation by the Tory activist, Kate Maltby, that the first secretary of state had behaved inappropriately towards her. The report by Heywood found that Malty's account of a disputed meeting was “plausible”, however, “with competing and contradictory accounts of what were private meetings, it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion”.
In his letter, Damian Green stated, “I deeply regret the distress caused to Kate Maltby following her article and the reaction to it. I do not recognise the events she described in her article, but I clearly made her feel uncomfortable and I apologise.”
Theresa May also used her letter to criticise the way police officers carried out the raid on Green's parliamentary office in 2008 when pornographic content was discovered, and disclosed information regarding the case to the media in recent weeks. She wrote, “I share the concerns from across the political spectrum when your parliamentary office was raided in 2008 when you were a shadow minister holding the Labour government account.”
Damian Green was a friend of the Prime Minister from when they both studied at Oxford University together and was one of the selected old ministers she had brought back into government when she became the Prime Minister in 2016.
Theresa May will be heading to Poland at the start of a two-day foreign trip and is not expected to appoint a new first secretary of state until the parliament returns from its Christmas recess in the new year.
