Trade minister Mark Garnier cleared of breaking ministerial code over sex toy scandal
2 min read
International trade minister Mark Garnier has been cleared of breaking the ministerial code by asking his former secretary to buy sex toys.
A Cabinet Office probe found that he had not "breached the expected standards of behaviour" since entering government in 2016.
Downing Street said Mr Garnier had apologised for any distress caused to Caroline Edmondson and that Theresa May believed "a line should be drawn under the issue".
Ms Edmondson was Mr Garnier's personal assistant when the incident happened in 2010, while he was still a backbencher.
In October, she told the Mail on Sunday: "He suggested to me in a Commons bar one evening that we went shopping for sex toys in Soho. The next day, he said, 'Come on, let’s do it'.
"He took me to Soho and gave me the money to buy two vibrators. He stood outside the shop while I did. He said one was for his wife and the other was for a woman who worked in his constituency office.
"Another time in the bar he said to me in the hearing of others, 'You are going nowhere, sugar t**s'."
At the time Mr Garnier said he would not deny the allegations "because I’m not going to be dishonest".
Mrs May ordered an investigation, which has finally reached a conclusion.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Cabinet Office's investigation primarily considered Mr Garnier's behaviour as a minister, but also heard evidence from before he was appointed to government.
"The Cabinet Office concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that Mr Garnier's conduct as a minister since 2016 had breached the expected standards of behaviour.
"The Prime Minister's view is therefore that Mr Garnier did not break the Ministerial Code while holding government office.
"The Cabinet Office also took evidence in relation to an incident that happened before Mr Garnier was a minister, between Mr Garnier and a member of his parliamentary and constituency staff.
"The Cabinet Office concluded that there was no dispute about the facts of the incident, but there was a significant difference of interpretation between the parties, and that the member of staff in Mr Garnier’s office was distressed by what had occurred.
"It was not his intention to cause distress, and Mr Garnier has apologised unreservedly to the individual. On that basis the Prime Minister considers that a line should be drawn under the issue."
Mr Garnier was cleared just a day after a separate probe found that Damian Green did break the ministerial code by lying over claims that porn was found on his work computer in 2008.
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