Theresa May’s Deputy Resigns in Furor Over Porn on Work Computer

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LONDON — Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, suffered a new and damaging setback on Wednesday when a close and trusted ally, Damian Green, was forced to resign his cabinet post, after an investigation found that he misled the public about pornography found on his parliamentary computer.

Mr. Green, who was effectively Mrs. May’s deputy, is the second cabinet minister to quit after allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct engulfed British politics in the wake of the scandal involving the American movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Another former minister, Priti Patel, also resigned from the cabinet last month after breaching ministerial rules by holding a dozen unauthorized meetings with Israeli officials during a summer vacation.

An investigation found that Mr. Green had breached the ministerial code by making “inaccurate and misleading” statements about what he knew of claims that pornography had been found on a computer in his parliamentary office in 2008.

In his resignation letter, Mr. Green said he regretted that he had been asked to stand aside, but apologized for his actions. Mrs. May said that it was with “deep regret” that she was asking him to resign. He is, however, retaining his seat in Parliament.

His departure is a significant blow for Mrs. May as Mr. Green is a friend from their student days at Oxford University, one of her most loyal and reliable political allies, and a key figure in her cabinet.

It comes just as Mrs. May’s political fortunes appeared to have improved at the end of a turbulent year in which she called a general election and lost her parliamentary majority, leading to intense speculation about her future.

The speculation increased after a disastrous party conference speech — which was disrupted by a prankster and marred by a persistent cough — and then the scandal over sexual harassment in Parliament, which prompted the resignation of her defense secretary, Michael Fallon.

Yet Mrs. May proved her powers of resilience and, earlier this month she achieved a breakthrough in talks over Britain’s exit from the European Union, allowing them to proceed to the next phase.

The momentum gained from that success has now come to an abrupt end.

Mr. Green, who as first secretary of state operated as Mrs. May’s deputy, was under investigation over two separate allegations.

The first was that he made unwanted advances to a female journalist, Kate Maltby, in 2015, by “fleetingly” touching her knee in a pub, and later sending her a “suggestive” text message.

The second was related to claims that pornography was found on a computer in Mr. Green’s office in the House of Commons in 2008 — allegations that first surfaced when the police investigated whether official information was being leaked to Mr. Green, who was then an opposition politician.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mrs. May’s office said an inquiry by the Cabinet Office found that there were “competing and contradictory accounts of what were private meetings” between Mr. Green and Ms. Maltby, but that “the investigation found Ms. Maltby’s account to be plausible.”

It added that statements made by Mr. Green that he was unaware that indecent material had been found on parliamentary computers in his office, were “inaccurate and misleading, as the Metropolitan Police Service had previously informed him of the existence of this material.”

That appeared to be the decisive judgment as the Cabinet Office concluded that Mr. Green’s statements fell short of the “honesty requirement” in the ministerial code.

In his resignation letter, Mr. Green said that he regretted that he had been asked to quit and insisted that he had not downloaded or viewed pornography on his computer, but that he accepted that his public statements had been “misleading.”

Mrs. May’s allies will hope that, with lawmakers scheduled to go on vacation on Thursday, she can limit the damage of the resignation.

But Mr. Green’s departure will deprive her of one of her closest allies, and could disturb the balance of a cabinet drawn up carefully to balance those who are hard-line supporters of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, and those who — like Mr. Green — want to retain close economic ties to the bloc after the country’s departure.

In a statement, Alistair Carmichael, chief whip of the opposition Liberal Democrat party, said that Christmas “can’t come early enough for Theresa May as her cabinet continues to crumble.”