(Newswire.net — November 8, 2019) — Alun Cairns, Conservative member, has dramatically quit as Welsh secretary after being accused of lying over an aide’s sabotaging of a rape trial.
After facing numerous calls to quit after he lied and claimed that he did not know that the evidence his aide, Ross England, gave at a rape trial, led to the collapse of the case.
At the rape trial Mr England, giving evidence, made claims he had had a casual sexual relationship with the victim, which she has denied.
Moreover, after lying about this incident, Alun Cairns endorsed Ross England’s campaign to stand as a candidate member for the Vale of Glamorgan.
Cairns had been discovered to be lying after the BBC revealed that he had known about the collapse of the case because he had been advised about the case in August last year. Emails show that he had spoken to Mr England and was ‘confident’ that no action would be taken against him for collapsing the rape case.
Only last week, however, the Conservative party insisted “categorically” that Mr Cairns was “completely unaware of the details of the collapse of this trial until they became public”.
Now there are calls for Alun Cairns to apologise to the rape victim herself, as her rape case was destroyed by his aide. The victim herself has released a statement, saying ‘“I can’t believe that not one senior Welsh Conservative has said that what he did was wrong.”
“It is because of situations like this that women don’t come forward and report rape,” the victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons and who previously worked in Mr Cairns’ constituency office – told BBC Wales.
What does this mean for the Conservative party?
This resignation comes at a terrible time for the Conservative party, who are trying to gain support in the upcoming election. Now, this resignation leaves the Conservative party open to criticism, possibly driving visitors away from voting for the party.
Although Assembly Tory leader Paul Davies has distanced himself from Mr England, saying he had fallen short of the standards expected of a Conservative candidate, it remains to be seen whether this will have a negative impact on the Conservative party.