Julia Hartley-Brewer: There must be reasons other than my knee why Fallon resigned
He’s made it very clear to me that he does not hold me responsible, which suggests to me that there is something else
Julia Hartley-Brewer has spoken of Sir Michael Fallon’s decision to quit as Defence Secretary on today’s Good Morning Britain, insisting there's more to the story than him touching her knee 15 years ago.
She said: “All the people I’ve spoken to in and around the Conservative party and Downing Street seem to make clear that they expect other allegations to surface. My understanding is that the Prime Minister felt that it was time for him to go.
The journalist and broadcaster, who says she was unbothered after the MP made a 'badly-judged pass in a busy restaurant' also revealed that Fallon doesn't blame her for his resignation: "He’s made it very clear to me that he does not hold me responsible, which suggests to me that there is something else.”
She added of the incident: “It certainly wasn’t an issue for me. He and I have stayed friends since, I never felt it was an issue. I only brought it up a year ago in a TV interview as a jokey thing and very specifically didn’t name him because I didn’t think it was something that should be brought up against him."
Julia continued: “I think talking about this undermines the genuine cases where people, men and women, are abusing their positions of power and harassing… or men and women who are people raped or sexually assaulted. We need to be focusing on that.”
Asked whether Fallon should have quit, she said: “Based on my knee, absolutely not. I don’t know what the other reasons are.”
Watch the full interview above
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