Boris Johnson has said the circumstances surrounding Damian Green’s departure from the cabinet are a “bit whiffy” – and suggested the de facto deputy PM will return to government one day.
Speaking to journalists on a plane to Russia, including BuzzFeed News, the foreign secretary said the allegations against Green “had the slight feeling of a vendetta”.
Green was forced to resign by his longtime friend Theresa May on Wednesday, after an investigation found he had wrongly claimed that police had not told him about the existence of porn on his office computer in 2008.
“I’m very sad for Damian and I think he’s been a fine public servant and done a great job and hopefully one day he’ll come back and continue to serve in other ways,” Johnson said.
“Plainly judging by the exchange of letters [between May and Green], he agreed he’d broken the ministerial code so the result was inevitable.
“But I think it was a bit whiffy, frankly, this business with whatever happens with the, er, information from his, er, computer.
“I don’t quite see why that was brought into the public domain in the way it was. I think it all needs to be investigated further, as the prime minister said. It had the slight feeling of a vendetta.”