Tory sacked for online porn allegations takes over as chair of online safety after former Tory chair suspended for sexual assault
Former Cabinet minister Damian Green has become the acting chairman of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee.
Mr Green, who was sacked as a minister in 2017 following allegations about pornography on his parliamentary computers, said “online safety” would be one of the key issues the committee would be considering.
He said: “This year will undoubtedly bring with it some major policy challenges in the world of DCMS, with online safety, the future of public service broadcasting, sports governance and gambling all likely to feature high up on the agenda.
“The committee will continue the important work it has been doing asking the right questions and scrutinising the approach and decisions of the Government and others.”
Mr Green lost his Cabinet job in 2017 after breaching the Ministerial Code by making “inaccurate and misleading statements” suggesting he was unaware of indecent material on his parliamentary computer.
In his resignation letter, Mr Green said that while he “did not download or view pornography on my parliamentary computers” he “should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers” about it in 2008 and then raised it in a subsequent phone call in 2013.
Damian Green will be replacing Tory MP Julian Knight who has been suspended from the parliamentary party after allegations of serious sexual assault were made against him to the Metropolitan Police.
MP Julian Knight went on to accuse the Tories of jeopardising his right to justice by naming him when they removed the whip after the police received allegations of serious sexual assault.
He accused colleagues of having “stripped me of the rights to anonymity or a fair hearing” when the Conservative whips removed him from the parliamentary party.
The MP for Solihull said he had been at the “centre of a campaign of rumour and innuendo” and blackmail as he insisted he is “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever”.
Scotland Yard later released a statement saying they received a further referral having previously received allegations of serious sexual assault.
