itv news | Westminster sex scandal Cabinet to probe claims minister asked secretary to buy sex toys
Channel: World Highlight News
Date: 2017-10-29

Press | Westminster sex scandal Cabinet to probe claims minister asked secretary to buy sex toys 
JEREMY HUNT revealed in a live BBC interview that an investigation into Mark Garnier will be launched amid claims of sexual harassment.

Theresa May has ordered the investigation into the Brexit Minister who allegedly sent his personal assistant to buy sex toys in what is said to be a crackdown on harassment in Westminster.

The International Trade Minister is also alleged to have called his House of Commons secretary Caroline Edmondson ‘sugar t*ts’.

Mr Hunt told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: "These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable.”

The Conservative party frontbencher said parents should be “confident” that their daughter could get a job in Westminster without being sexually harassed.


The Health Secretary added Mrs May is writing to Commons speaker John Bercow to “ask for advice”.

Mr Hunt said: "The Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation as to whether there was a breach of the ministerial code in this particular case.

“There are Mums and Dads who have daughters who are politics students hoping to get a job in Westminster and they must be able to be confident that if they get that job, their daughter will not be subject to some of these behaviours that we’ve been seeing.

“So it’s absolutely essential that we sort this out.


“This is something that covers behaviour by MPs of all parties and that’s why, the other thing that’s going to happen is, that today Theresa May is going to write to John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons, to ask for his advice as to how we change that culture."

Ms Edmondson alleged the Brexit minister gave her cash to buy two vibrators at a sex shop in Soho and that he stood outside the store while she bought them.

The Mail On Sunday said married International Trade Minister Mark Garnier described the incidents as "good-humoured high jinks" and "amusing conversation".

He was said to have strongly denied that they constituted sexual harassment.


The report comes after Downing Street warned on Friday that Theresa May would take "serious action" against any minister found to have acted inappropriately.

Mr Garnier's former secretary Caroline Edmondson told The Mail on Sunday he had given her the money to buy two vibrators at a Soho sex shop - one for his wife and one for a woman in his constituency office.

Ms Edmondson, who has since left to work for another MP, was quoted as saying that on another occasion in a bar, in front of witnesses, he told her: "You are going nowhere, sugar t*ts."

The Mail reported that Mr Garnier had admitted the claims, saying: "I'm not going to deny it, because I'm not going to be dishonest. I'm going to have to take it on the chin."


According to the paper, he said the "sugar t*ts" comment was part of an "amusing conversation" about the TV comedy Gavin and Stacey, while the sex toys were bought after a Christmas lunch.

"We bought some soap sets, that sort of stuff, scented candles. The vibrator shop was high jinks," he is quoted as saying.

"I hung around outside and she went into this shop. That was it."

The Mail said Mr Garnier had conceded that, in the current climate, his actions could look like "dinosaur behaviour", but insisted: "It absolutely does not constitute harassment."


It comes amid amid speculation at Westminster that at least four MPs have been caught up in various allegations of sexual misconduct.

Downing Street said such behaviour was "completely unacceptable" and urged women affected to report it to the police.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned of a "warped and degrading culture" where the abuse of women had gone unchallenged for too long.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove was forced to apologise on Saturday after a "clumsy" attempt at a joke in which he likened being interviewed by BBC presenter John Humphrys to "going into Harvey Weinstein's bedroom".



It comes as the Prime Minister’s aides have indicated that any ministers found to have been making unwanted advances could expect to be fired.

Her intervention came after a report that female researchers and aides were using a mobile phone messaging group to protect themselves from male MPs’ and ministers’ lecherous behaviour. 

The messages allegedly named male MPs and carried warnings about them such as “very handsy,” “not safe in taxis” and “don’t get in the lift with.” 

Complaints include claims that a Cabinet minister “groped” people at a drinks party, that a Labour MP had molested a woman on a foreign trip and that a Tory grandee had been banned from hiring “leggy” women.

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