LONDON (REUTERS) - British Prime Minister Theresa May forced her most senior minister, Mr Damian Green, to resign on Wednesday (Dec 20) after an internal investigation found he had made misleading comments about pornography on computers in his parliamentary office.

Below are details about Mr Green, the investigation into his behaviour and Mrs May's decision to demand his resignation.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

An ally and a friend from their days at the University of Oxford, Mr Green was appointed first secretary of state, Mrs May's de facto deputy, in the wake of her snap June election which stripped her party of its parliamentary majority.

In the tumultuous weeks after the June vote, Mr Green helped to stabilise Mrs May's premiership and appease some of those within the Conservative Party who wanted her to quit.

His departure is a blow for the government as Mrs May navigates the final year of tortuous Brexit negotiations before Britain's exit from the European Union in March 2019. He is also the third minister to quit in recent weeks following the departure of the defence minister and the aid minister.

The departure of Mr Green, who like Mrs May voted in the 2016 referendum to stay in the EU, also removes one of her most senior advocates of a softer Brexit.

The resignation comes a day after Mrs May started the delicate process of agreeing a common negotiating position among her Cabinet for the long-term relationship Britain wants to have with the EU after Brexit.

WHAT WERE THE ALLEGATIONS?

On Nov 1, Ms Kate Maltby, an academic, critic and family friend, wrote an article in the Times newspaper alleging that Mr Green had made an inappropriate sexual advance towards her in 2015.

"He offered me career advice and in the same breath made it clear he was sexually interested," said Ms Maltby, who is three decades younger than Mr Green.

"He steered the conversation to the habitual nature of sexual affairs in Parliament... He mentioned that his own wife was very understanding. I felt a fleeting hand against my knee."

Mr Green denied the allegations as "absolutely and completely untrue". Mrs May asked the Cabinet Office, responsible for the administrative functions of the government, to investigate.

PORNOGRAPHY SCANDAL

Five days later, the Sunday Times reported that the police had found pornography on a computer in Mr Green's office during a 2008 investigation into government leaks.

Mr Green said in a statement that the story was "completely untrue".

"More importantly, the police have never suggested to me that improper material was found on my parliamentary computer," he added.

In a second statement on Nov 11, he again said no allegations about the presence of improper material on his parliamentary computers had ever been put to him.

INVESTIGATION

On Wednesday, Mrs May's office published a summary of its investigation into Mr Green.

It found that Mr Green's conduct as a minister was generally "professional and proper" and that it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of his behaviour with Ms Maltby.

It said however that the investigation found Ms Maltby's account of the events to be plausible.

On the issue of pornography, it found the two statements made by Mr Green on Nov 4 and 11 to be inaccurate and misleading.

"The Metropolitan Police Service had previously informed him of the existence of this material," it said. "These statements therefore fall short of the honesty requirement of the Seven Principles of Public Life and constitute breaches of the Ministerial Code. Mr Green accepts this."

FORCED RESIGNATION

On Wednesday, Mrs May asked for his resignation.

"While I can understand the considerable distress caused to you by some of the allegations which have been made in recent weeks, I know that you share my commitment to maintaining the high standards which the public demands of Ministers of the Crown," Mrs May wrote to Mr Green in a letter.

"It is therefore with deep regret, and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years, that I asked you to resign from the government and have accepted your resignation."

Mr Green apologised for breaking the ministerial code.

He said that he did not download or view pornography on his parliamentary computers but accepted that he should have been more clear in his November statements about what the police had told him.

He said he did not recognise the description Ms Maltby gave of their 2015 meeting but said he had clearly made her feel uncomfortable and apologised. He added that he deeply regretted the distress caused to Ms Maltby after she wrote the article.

"I regret that I've been asked to resign from the government following breaches of the ministerial code, for which I apologise," he said.