MPs who cheered Damian Green 'the same as Presidents Club guests', says journalist
Journalist Kate Maltby, who made claims against Damian Green, is criticising MPs for welcoming back the ex-minister so readily.
Thursday 25 January 2018 12:34, UK
The journalist who accused Damian Green of sexual harassment has compared MPs who cheered the disgraced ex-minister's return to the House of Commons to the guests of a London dinner hit by sleaze claims.
Kate Maltby, a columnist and Tory activist who accused Mr Green of making inappropriate advances towards her, spoke out amid the scandal over last week's Presidents Club fundraiser.
She suggested the attendance of a Government minister at the event was "toxic".
The annual dinner has since been cancelled amid allegations, published by the Financial Times, that female hostesses were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned by some of the 360 guests at the capital's Dorchester hotel.
Attendees included celebrities, Labour peer Lord Mendelsohn and other leading figures from finance, business and politics.
Tory education minister Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed to Government just 16 days ago, is under pressure for attending the controversial fundraiser and was summoned to the Tory whips' office for a "dressing down".
Posting on Twitter on Wednesday night, Mr Zahawi said: "I told No 10 and friends that I arrived at 8pm and left at 9:35pm as I felt uncomfortable. I did not see any of the horrific events reported by the FT. I am shocked by them and condemn them unequivocally."
But Ms Maltby told Sky News: "To look at people like Nadhim Zahawi, who may have been at a dinner where things happened that are culturally unacceptable but happen when large groups of men are drunk and misogynistic.
She said it is "as toxic to be a bystander and to do nothing sometimes" as it is "to be a perpetrator".
Cabinet minister Matt Hancock branded the Presidents Club event "sexist" and claimed he would not have attended the male-only dinner if invited.
The head of the Charity Commission has said she is "horrified" over the reports about the dinner, which has raised £20m for charities over more than 30 years.
The fallout of the scandal has already seen David Meller, one of the Presidents Club's trustees, quit a Government role and his position with a charity fronted by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Mr Meller, a major Tory donor, was awarded a CBE in this year's New Year's honours list.
On Wednesday, the day reports of the Presidents Club scandal broke, Mr Green - the Prime Minister's former de facto deputy - spoke for the first time in Parliament since being sacked following pornography and harassment allegations.
As he rose to ask a question at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Green was cheered loudly by a group of Conservative backbenchers around him.
Tory MPs also laughed at Mr Green's quip that it's "a lot easier asking them than answering them", as he made his first contribution in the House of Commons since deputising for Theresa May at a previous session of Prime Minister's Questions in November.
Ms Maltby hit out at Mr Green's Conservative colleagues for welcoming him back so readily.
"Damian Green made an intervention at Prime Minister's Questions, his first question in the Commons, and he was cheered and clapped by a group of men sitting around him and, indeed, across the Commons, who were welcoming him back with no sense that they might be embarrassed to be associated with someone who had behaved in that way," she said.
"This is the exact same thing as the Presidents Club phenomenon.
"It's a group of men who know that someone has done wrong, who has been found to have done wrong, who has even been made to apologise for that, who still think he's part of the tribe, part of the gang, part of the group.
"And when it comes to these men who have attended the Presidents Club but not done anything to stop it, it's the exact same thing."
Ms Maltby revealed Mr Green has yet to apologise to her personally since he was told to resign by the Prime Minister last month.
"Damian Green apologised to me in his resignation letter, that is something I believe the Prime Minister made him do," she said.
"I am amazed, actually, that he has shown no public contrition.
"He hasn't apologised to me personally. What would make a great difference is if he apologised and meant it.
"I have seen nothing in his behaviour to suggest that he would."
Mr Green's departure from Government came after he was found by a Cabinet Office inquiry to have lied over claims pornography was found on his parliamentary computer.
In his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, he wrote: "I deeply regret the distress caused to Kate Maltby following her article about me and the reaction to it.
"I do not recognise the events she described in her article, but I clearly made her feel uncomfortable and for this I apologise."
A Labour spokesperson said Lord Mendelsohn did not see any of the "appalling incidents" described by the Financial Times and "unreservedly condemns" such behaviour.