Jacob Rees-Mogg has been speaking out following Damian Green’s forced resignation. Because he can’t accept one very basic fact. Green was sacked because he lied. But Rees-Mogg finds this difficult to believe. He told The Sun:
I’m very sorry he’s resigned and I’m deeply concerned that as far as I can tell the reason for his resignation is some questionable behaviour by retired policemen based on a deeply questionable search of his office when he was an opposition spokesman in 2008.
He continued:
I think this raises more questions about how the police behaved then and how the retired policemen behaved since than it does about Damian Green… and I think it is a loss for the Government to be without his wisdom.
Liar liar
Rees-Mogg would do well to read the letter Theresa May sent to Green. In it, she makes it clear that she demanded his resignation because he breached the Ministerial Code, and that:
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.
In the statements Green made, he denied knowing that pornography was found on his computer. And while Green still denies that he downloaded or viewed the porn, he lied when he said he didn’t know anything about it.
Questionable behaviour?
Instead, Rees-Mogg has blamed the police officer who came forward for “questionable behaviour”; as, it seems, has May. In her letter, May stated:
I am glad that the commissioner of the Metropolitan police has condemned that, made clear that police officers’ duty of confidentiality endures after they leave the force.
Whistleblowing
According to the government’s own website, whistleblowers are protected by law. It says:
The wrongdoing you disclose must be in the public interest. This means it must affect others, eg the general public.
And this is exactly what former police chief Bob Quick did when he released the information about Green. Quick said that he released the information because it was:
accurate, in good faith, and in the firm belief that I have acted in the public interest.
It surely must be in the public interest to know that one of the most senior politicians in the country had “thousands” of pornographic images on his work computer. And it is definitely in the public interest that he lied about knowing they were there.
It’s time for politicians like Rees-Mogg to stop deflecting the blame. Green lied and he got the sack for it. And those who care about the public interest should start praising rather than condemning Quick for having the courage to come forward and speak out.
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