One of Theresa May’s Brexit Ministers was at the centre of a new Westminster sexism row last night after admitting he called his secretary ‘sugar t*ts’ and got her to buy sex toys for him.
Commons secretary Caroline Edmondson told The Mail on Sunday that International Trade Minister Mark Garnier called her ‘sugar t*ts’ in front of witnesses.
And she said he gave her cash to buy two vibrators at a sex shop in Soho – and stood outside the store while she bought them.
Theresa May’s spokesman said on Friday that unwanted sexual behaviour was ‘completely unacceptable’ and any Ministers found to have acted inappropriately would face ‘serious action’.
And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday condemned ‘warped and degrading’ behaviour at Westminster. He talked of a ‘culture that has tolerated abuse for far too long and thrives in the corridors of power’.
Ms Edmondson said wealthy ex-banker Mr Garnier told her that one of the sex toys was for his wife, also called Caroline, while the other was for a female assistant in his Wyre Forest constituency office in the West Midlands.
Father-of-three Mr Garnier, 53, one of International Trade Secretary Liam Fox’s deputies, last night confirmed the claims. ‘I’m not going to deny it, because I’m not going to be dishonest,’ he said. ‘I’m going to have to take it on the chin.’
He said his ‘sugar t*ts’ comment was part of ‘an amusing conversation’ about TV comedy Gavin And Stacey. In the show, the term is used to describe an attractive woman.
Asking Ms Edmondson to buy sex toys in Soho was ‘good-humoured high jinks’, he said.
He denied it constituted sexual harassment. Mr Garnier said that the sex toys were bought after a Christmas lunch. ‘We bought some soap sets, that sort of stuff, scented candles. The vibrator shop was high jinks.’
Mr Garnier said he told Ms Edmondson he didn’t think it was a good idea, but she had gone ahead. ‘I hung around outside and she went into this shop. That was it.’
He said they later ‘fell out’ and claimed that ‘disgruntled’ Ms Edmondson ‘has been using [the incident] against me ever since’.
He vehemently denied sexual harassment, saying: ‘Not at all. It absolutely does not constitute harassment.’
He conceded that in the current post-Harvey Weinstein sexism climate it could ‘look like dinosaur behaviour’ but added: ‘In the context of the time, we got on fine.’
Last night, Ms Edmondson hit back at Mr Garnier’s version of events and called him a ‘s**t’.
She said: ‘He has lied. He suggested to me in a Commons bar one evening that we went shopping for sex toys in Soho. The next day, he said, “Come on, let’s do it.”
‘He took me to Soho and gave me the money to buy two vibrators. He stood outside the shop while I did. He said one was for his wife and the other was for a woman who worked in his constituency office.’
She added: ‘Another time in the bar he said to me in the hearing of others, “You are going nowhere, sugar t*ts.”
‘He was worried I was going to go off and work for another MP. It was awful.’
Shortly after the incidents in 2010, Ms Edmondson, who is married, stopped working for Mr Garnier. She is now Commons secretary to former Cabinet Minister John Whittingdale.