Theresa May doesn’t want to answer these questions about Damian Green – but she should
Damian Green, the now-former first secretary of state, described the claims against him as ‘untrue and deeply hurtful’ [Image: Andrew Matthews/PA].
Will they every be answered?
This Writer doubts it.
But we will never be able to trust a Tory government until they are.
1. Did he abuse his power?
The original allegation by academic and writer Kate Maltby was that before he was a minister Green, who was a family friend, touched her knee, said his wife was “very understanding”, and gave her to understand that her career as a Tory activist could be advanced by an affair with a sleazy bald man 30 years her senior.
Beyond saying she was “plausible” her claims have not been studied. As a result, the voters of Ashford in Kent, his colleagues in government, and his friend Theresa still don’t know if he was in the habit of using his position as a MP to satisfy personal lust, and to do so by pressurising or dangling preferment before women who might otherwise have told him to sod off.
2. Did he try to destroy Kate Maltby?
In the wake of her allegations the Daily Mail published not one but two unfavourable opinion pieces about Kate.
It quoted an unnamed friend saying her parents “will be absolutely aghast by what Kate has done. They are good and decent people who eschew publicity. They are still friends with Damian and his wife. I’m tempted to say what was she thinking about. But we know that. She was thinking about Kate Maltby.”
Her parents said: “We are not surprised to find that the inquiry found Mr Green to have been untruthful as a minister, nor to that they found our daughter to be a plausible witness… despite the attempted campaign in certain sections of the media to denigrate and intimidate her and other witnesses. We are proud of her.”
So who was the unnamed friend? Was it Green, one of his associates, or a member of his staff? Journalists should always protect their sources, but not when it turns out the source has lied in what looks like an attempt to destroy the reputation of a “plausible” woman.
If Green was not involved in an ugly public campaign to wreck the credibility of a self-employed woman who had annoyed him, he has a right to be cleared of any suspicion. And if he or any of his friends were, we have a right to know.
3. What did Theresa May know, and when?
Theresa May has been mates with Damian Green for her entire adult life. When the allegations emerged she ordered a whitewash – that Kate’s claims shouldn’t be examined closely, but instead whether he’d broken the rules of behaviour since.
Did he discuss it with her? Did he lie to her?
During the inquiry she didn’t suspend him, or move him out of harm’s way – she allowed him to sit in for her at Prime Minister’s Questions, to chair cabinet committees, to remain at the top table.
If she did that knowing he had made false statements about what he knew of pornography on his computer her position is untenable. Perhaps someone else in Downing Street knew, and kept it from her – in which case we need to know when they’re going to be sacked, too.
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yup would be good to know the answers and prepared to wait however long it takes to get the true facts but for now he is added to the ever increasing list of lying Tories who treat the voters as plebs and having ownership of their reports.
I wonder how long it will be before he’s given some well paid non-job or sent to the house of lords?
Nice to see that the “Dirty Damian Green” allegations are still bubbling away. This odious man should be hounded until he appears before the Courts for his crimes, whether it be in connection with pornography, misuse of power, misconduct in a public office, or any other offences.