Senior Conservatives are urging Theresa May to use the resignation of Sir Michael Fallon as an opportunity to rid government of a “locker room culture” as she prepares reshuffle amid the growing scandal about sexual harassment.

Fallon resigned as defence secretary on Wednesday night, admitting that his behaviour towards women had “fallen below high standards we require of the armed forces”.

But the woman at the centre of the scandal, Julia Hartley-Brewer, whose knee Fallon repeatedly touched without her permission in an incident 15 years ago, claimed May had asked Fallon to resign.

The Scottish Conservatives leader, Ruth Davidson, and the former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith called on May to use the reshuffle to show the government would not tolerate inappropriate behaviour.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Davidson said: “The dam has broken and these male-dominated professions, where the boy’s own locker room culture has prevailed and it’s all been a bit of a laugh, has got to stop.”

She revealed she had spoken to the prime minister about introducing a new code of conduct for the Conservative party. In a speech on Wednesday evening, Davidson called for the Augean stables to be swept clean.

Davidson told Today: “There has been this sense that people can use positions of power to demand things from others – and that has got to stop. We, as a elected representatives, have to hold ourselves to a higher standard.

“I spoke to the prime minister last night at great length about what we can do on a UK-wide basis, in terms of a code of conduct for all elected officials and those who work for the party too. We expect both parliament and parties to move forward from this.”

Duncan Smith told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I’m told reliably that Theresa May really does see this as a change moment and she wants to make sure of this.

“It is critical for Theresa May to rule this thing with a rod of iron over where we are right now. She has to give the lead on this now and say we won’t tolerate this, nobody else should tolerate it … This is time for us to say in any institution this kind of abuse of power cannot in future be tolerated.”

Fallon said in his resignation letter: “The culture has changed over the years. What might have been acceptable 10 or 15 years ago is clearly not acceptable now. Parliament now needs to look at itself and the prime minister has made very clear that conduct needs to be improved.”

This week Hartley-Brewer said “no one was remotely upset or distressed” after Fallon put his hands on her knee three times during a dinner.



But last night she told ITV’s After the News said: “There was never a time when it was OK to go around putting your hand on someone’s knee without their permission under a table.”

Hartley-Brewer revealed that she sent a text message to Fallon last night after his resignation.

“He did not respond but it is my understanding that the decision was not wholly Sir Michael Fallon’s own decision, and that the request for him to leave came from the prime minister,” she said.

May is expected to appoint a replacement on Thursday without embarking on a wider reshuffle, but pressure is likely to mount on first secretary of state, Damian Green, after disclosures were made by a woman he knew.



Green, a close ally of the prime minister, has strenuously denied making unwanted sexual advances towards Kate Maltby, an academic involved in Conservative politics.

May ordered an investigation by the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, into the claims on Wednesday.