Former minister for civil society Brooks Newmark announced yesterday he will step down as MP at the next election following revelations he sent explicit texts to a second person.
Newmark was minister for civil society for just over a month but stepped aside two weeks ago after revelations that he sent intimate pictures to a newspaper journalist who he thought was a Tory PR girl.
Yesterday it emerged that he allegedly had a two-year affair with a young mother and sent her a series of explicit text messages.
The woman reportedly said that she believed they were in a relationship as he didn’t tell her he was married.
Newmark’s wife has reportedly walked out on him.
All mention of Newmark removed by his charity
Newmark is involved with several charities, including the education charity, A Partner in Education (Apie) which he co-founded. Today all mention of Newmark on the charity’s website was removed.
A spokesperson for the charity declined to comment.
According to the Charity Commission, Apie is currently 13 days late in filing its 2013 accounts.
A spokesperson for the regulator told Civil Society News: "We sent this charity an original invitation to file on 10 April, then a second reminder on 17 June and a third reminder on 14 August. At the end of this month they will get a final default notice. If a charity continues to fail to file, it can result in them being removed from the Register."
Newmark in Sun on Sunday: I've let people down
Writing in The Sun on Sunday yesterday, Newmark said: “I have traumatised my family and let down my constituents and colleagues. Many will regard me as a failure.”
He said that he “craved adrenaline and risk” and hinted that he suffered from mental ill health brought on by stress at work – which in turn drove him to “increasingly erratic behaviour”.
“Deep inside, I knew I was playing with fire. Now it has consumed me and my family,” he said.
“I have long argued in Parliament against the stigma which we too often attach to mental illness. But I did not practise what I preached.
“I talked about my anorexia as a teenager, yet I was never brave enough to admit first that I was suffering from depression, or that I was lapsing into episodes of behaviour that any normal person would regard as bizarre and abhorrent.
“I realise now – too late – that I needed treatment,” he wrote in the paper.
According to The Sun on Sunday, the single mother ended the relationship two weeks ago after revelations that he sent naked pictures to someone else.
She told the newspaper: “He's told the world he was foolish and he engaged in late-night flirtations online with other women because he was unwell. But that simply isn't true. We met in 2012 and he seduced me.
“We had a full-on relationship for over two years. I was in love with him.”
After questioning him about whether she could trust him again, he allegedly responded: “Please stop thinking about yourself”.
