Trade Minister Mark Garnier was sacked today just weeks after he clung to his job in the aftermath of it emerging he sent a secretary to buy sex toys
Trade Minister Mark Garnier was sacked today just weeks after he clung to his job in the aftermath of it emerging he sent a secretary to buy sex toys.
Mr Garnier was cleared by a lengthy inquiry into his conduct because his actions took place before he was a minister.
It meant he kept his job on December 21 but Theresa May brought his career to an abrupt halt today.
Mr Garnier lost out in a reshuffle of the Government’s middle ranks and was one of more than half a dozen ministers to be kicked to the backbenches.
In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Mr Garnier said: ‘Very sad to have lost my job at @tradegovuk but looking forward to supporting @theresa-may Government from the backbenches.’
After the conclusion of a Cabinet Office investigation into the allegations last month, Mrs May had said that ‘a line should be drawn under the issue’.
In the aftermath of the inquiry, Mr Garnier wrote to former secretary Caroline Edmondson apologising for his actions following the end of the Cabinet Office inquiry.
The allegations emerged when Ms Edmondson told the Mail on Sunday that International the wealthy ex-banker called her ‘sugar t*ts’ in front of witnesses.
She said he gave her cash to buy two vibrators at a sex shop in Soho – and stood outside the store while she bought them.
At the time, a No 10 spokesman said the investigation had primarily considered Mr Garnier’s behaviour as a minister. The incidents themselves occurred before he was appointed.
Mr Garnier confirmed his dismissal on Twitter today less than a month after he clung to his job following a marathon sleaze inquiry
Mr Garnier kept his job on December 21 but Theresa May (pictured with her Cabinet today) brought his career to an abrupt halt today
Ms Edmondson taunted the MP last month, sending a Christmas card with her partner, Sky News’s Jon Craig, featuring her holding icing sugar up to her chest.
He is stirring a bowl of kitchen mix above the caption: ‘Let’s cause a stir this Christmas.’
Mr Garnier allegedly told her that one of the sex toys was for his wife, also called Caroline, while the other was for a female assistant in his Wyre Forest constituency office in the West Midlands.
He has not denied the claims. After they first emerged, he told his local newspaper The Kidderminster Shuttle they had been taken ‘outside the context and circumstances in which they occurred’.
The Wyre Forest MP said: ‘The events of 2010 concerning myself and a former member of staff have been reported outside the context and circumstances in which they occurred.
‘At the time we were friends, and I want to be clear that I did not force or pressure her into doing anything.
‘It is right that the public expect high standards of behaviour from their elected representatives, and I apologise to my constituents that this situation has occurred.’
In a cheeky Christmas card snap, Caroline Edmondson pokes fun at Mr Garnier who called her ‘sugar t**s’ by holding up a box of icing sugar to her chest with the caption ‘let’s cause a stir this Christmas’