- Damian Green lost his job as First Secretary of State this week.
- He was forced out after an investigation into his personal conduct.
- It began with an accusation from writer and activist Kate Maltby.
- Maltby has since claimed she knows other women with worse allegations.
- She said they were intimidated out of going public by aggressive coverage of Maltby by the Daily Mail, which suggested that she had ulterior motives.
Two more women have allegations of sexual misconduct to level at Damian Green, but were intimidated out of going public, according to the woman whose accusation against him ultimately led to his resignation.
Kate Maltby, a columnist and Conservative activist, claimed that she knows two other people have “more serious” allegations than her own against Green, who until this week was Prime Minister Theresa May’s de facto deputy.
In an article for The Sunday Times, Maltby said that she only made her original accusation – that in 2015 Green effectively offered her career advancement in exchange for sex – once she knew it was part of a wider pattern.
She wrote: “In the days before I made my allegation public, I became aware of two young women who were considering making allegations against him. Their positions were more vulnerable, their allegations more serious.”
The article does not specify what the allegations were.
Maltby said that the women were prepared to join her going public, but changed their minds after the Daily Mail published an aggressive profile of Maltby which sought to undermine her credibility.
The Mail cited a number of unnamed sources, who described her as "relentless", "desperate to be well-known," and untrustworthy. Maltby suggested that Green helped Mail columnist Andrew Pierce to write it.
Maltby's original accusation, made in November, began a chain of events which ended Green's ministerial career.
After putting his behaviour back in the news agenda, retired police officers came forward with accusations that Green had kept pornography on his parliamentary computer in 2008.
In the course of responding to that story, Green lied to the press, which is the reason Theresa May gave for demanding his resignation.
A Cabinet Office investigation into Green did not rule on whether Maltby's allegation was true, but described her claim as "plausible." Green said he "did not recognise" Maltby's description of their meeting, but apologised that he "made her feel uncomfortable."
In a statement to The Sunday Times, a spokesman for Green said he could not comment on the other allegations without knowing who made them.