U.K.
Key ally of British prime minister resigns amid porn scandal
LONDON — Britain’s First Secretary of State Damian Green was forced to resign Wednesday because of a pornography scandal. He was being investigated because of pornographic images found on a Parliament computer in his office in 2008.
The key ally to Prime Minister Theresa May was ousted from his post on Wednesday night even though he maintained he had not used pornography on his office computers. However, he acknowledged he had not been forthcoming in earlier statements about the investigation.
“From the outset, I have been clear that I did not download or view pornography on my Parliamentary computers,” Green said in his resignation later.
“I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013,” he said.
May said she asked Green for his resignation after an investigation concluded he had not been open about the matter.
“I have also carefully considered the report’s conclusions in relation to two statements you made on 4 and 11 November which you now accept were inaccurate and misleading,” the prime minister wrote in a letter requesting Green to step aside and saying he had fallen short of the standards expected of him.
“It is therefore 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,” May wrote.
Green was a vital political ally who acted as a de facto deputy prime minister and supported May in her difficult Brexit negotiations.
He had claimed earlier he was the victim of a smear campaign. The pornography was found on his computer during a police investigation of government leaks.