Bye Bye Damian Green

By David Ward

For nearly 35,000 voters in the Weald of Kent July 4th means goodbye to their former MP Damian Green. Boundary changes have moved many of his former constituents out of Ashford where Green was first elected in 1997. The 68 year old is standing again in Ashford which is now far less safe for the Tories and could be a Labour gain. Whether Green survives the verdict of the voters or not he is now in the twilight of a parliamentary career marked by poor judgement calls.

Green is the Chairman of the ‘One Nation’ caucus of MPs that is supposed to represent the centre right of the Conservative Party. However, his record suggests more right than centre. For example, he campaigned against the introduction of a national minimum wage claiming it would “discourage workers from taking low-paid socially useful work” (1) . Green has been proved hopelessly wrong. Introduced by the Labour Government in 1998 the national minimum wage has recently been described by the independent Resolution Foundation to be “the single most successful economic policy in a generation boosting the wages of lower earners by £6,000 a year” (2).

Given a place in the cabinet by Theresa May, Green became Secretary of State for Work & Pensions in 2016. However, he failed to prevent the Tories disastrous proposal for a ‘death tax’ to fund social care in the 2017 general election. The Conservatives lost their majority in parliament and soon after another Green mistake resulted in him being sacked from the Government.

A Cabinet Office inquiry into allegations – which Green strongly denied – that he had sexually harassed a women and viewed pornography on a work computer, found that he had breached the ministerial code for making “inaccurate and misleading statements”. He twice inaccurately claimed that he was unaware that indecent material had been found on his office computers. Dubbed “Pornocchio” by the Daily Mirror Green was instructed by Theresa May to resign from the government (3).

Even after this setback Green has continued to make embarrassing missteps. With the creation by the Boundary Commission of the new Weald of Kent constituency, Green tried to be selected here rather than remain in Ashford (4). The local Conservatives rejected his advances leaving him “disappointed” and with no alternative but to stick with Ashford . Green is now running for election with the slogan #Ambitious4Ashford. But by his own actions it is clear that his real ambition was to become the MP for the Weald of Kent. Ashford is his second choice and perhaps voters there will follow his example. If they vote for Labour’s excellent candidate Councillor Sojan Joseph Ashford residents can join their neighbours in the Weald of Kent in saying a final bye bye to Damian Green.

Links:

1. A Great British success story: the national minimum wage – Personnel Today
2. The minimum wage is the single most successful economic policy in a generation, and has boosted the wages of millions of Britain’s lowest earners by £6,000 a year • Resolution Foundation
3. ‘Pornochhio’ Damian Green throws government into chaos as PM’s right-hand man is finally forced out over probe buffering him since 2008 – Mirror Online
4. Ashford MP Damian Green rejected as election candidate for new Weald of Kent constituency (kentonline.co.uk)

Photo Credit: The Mirror