Damian Green (pictured) was sacked by Theresa May earlier this week
Damian Green has been accused of ‘dirty tricks’ after text messages between him and Tory activist Kate Maltby were leaked.
The 61-year-old was sacked by Theresa May this week after he was judged to have breached the ministerial code when he lied about porn being found on his Parliamentary computer.
Mr Green, who was at Oxford University with Mrs May, lied about being contacted by police after they found the material on his computer during a search in 2008.
And Ms Maltby, who originally accused him of sexual misconduct, today said he would have kept his job if he had issued a ‘limited apology’.
Ms Maltby, 31, claimed Mr Green ‘fleetingly’ touched her knee during a meeting in a pub in 2015.
She also claimed he later sent her a ‘suggestive’ text message after she was pictured wearing a corset in a newspaper.
But according to text messages leaked to the Mail on Sunday, Ms Maltby continued to contact the former First Secretary of State after the alleged corset incident, and after she claimed she alerted a Downing Street aide to Mr Green’s behaviour.
However, the full chain of messages shows Mrs May’s former deputy suggest that the pair should ‘fix a date soon’.
A Tory MP accused Mr Green and his supporters of ‘launching an attack’, and Ms Maltby told the Sunday Times ‘only Damian Green or his allies’ could have leaked the texts.
Former Conservative minister Anna Sourby said an attempt to ‘smear or trash’ Ms Maltby was ‘shameful’ and ‘wrong’.
Another MP told the Sunday Times: ‘It smacks of a dirty tricks campaign and is unhelpful to the government when it is still dealing with the fallout of the Westminster harassment scandal.’
Text messages seen by the Mail on Sunday suggest Ms Maltby sent texts to Mr Green this year, which appeared friendly in tone and included one in February which said ‘hope to catch up when things calm down’.
Mr Green reportedly replied: ‘they never do so let’s fix a date soon’, to which Ms Maltby is said to have replied: ‘Great. Night night.’
Ms Maltby said she believes only Mr Green ‘or his allies’ could have leaked the messages, but a source said that he ‘totally denies having anything’ to do with it.
She wrote in the paper: ‘On October 31, I asserted in The Times that Damian Green had made sexual advances while offering me career advice and discussing the possibility of helping me become a Tory candidate.
‘Last week Green accepted that, although he did not recognise the events as I had described them, ‘he clearly made [me] uncomfortable, and for that I apologise’. The prime minister told him he was right to do so.
Kate Maltby (pictured) originally accused Damian Green of sexual misconduct and said either he – or his allies – leaked the messages
‘If he had issued that same, limited apology back then, he would probably still have his job today. It would have been rational damage limitation for any politician.
‘At least, it would have been for any politician who could be confident no other women would emerge with similar allegations.’