Michael Fallon quits in growing Westminster sexual harassment scandal
London — Michael Fallon quit as British defence minister on Wednesday, the first resignation in a growing sexual harassment scandal that prompted calls for a wholesale change in the "locker room" culture in parliament. Members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party said the first high-profile resignation in the scandal showed it was time for reform at the 800-year-old parliament, where power is concentrated in legislators’ hands and wielded, often unchecked, over junior aides. The loss of Fallon, described by Conservative sources as a political "Rottweiler", leaves May with a hole in her cabinet, already at odds on everything from Britain’s departure from the European Union to the government’s austerity agenda. Weakened after losing her party’s majority in a June election, May will want to move swiftly to appoint a replacement with as little disruption as possible. In his letter of resignation to May, Fallon, who had apologised earlier this week for repeatedly touching a...
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