Sir Gavin Williamson resigned on 8 November from his position in Britain’s government after allegations that he bullied his colleagues. AFP
Trouble is brewing for United Kingdom prime minister Rishi Sunak already. It’s been two weeks since he took over and appointed a new team of ministers. Now only of them has already resigned from the Cabinet. On Tuesday, Sir Gavin Williamson, a minister and close ally of the PM, stepped down over allegations of bullying.
The British minister of state has been accused of abusive behaviour towards his Conservative Party colleagues and other civil servants. However, he is no stranger to controversy. This is also not the first time he has been forced to quit the Cabinet. He was sacked from the post of defence secretary by former PM Theresa May and as education secretary by her predecessor Boris Johnson.
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Why did Sir Gavin Williamson resign?
The minister quit the government as allegations of bullying mounted. The Conservative Party MP said he was resigning, as claims about his behaviour, which he refuted, had become a “distraction” for the good work the government was doing”.
Sir Gavin’s decision came after fresh accusations that he threatened a woman Tory MP by raising an issue about her private life in a meeting. She is said to have claimed that Sir Gavin mentioned something personal in 2016 to silence her when he was the chief whip and she was a backbencher.
The MP, who was campaigning on a subject which was causing problems to the then government, interpreted the conversation as a threat, according to a report in The Times. It is alleged that Sir Gavin attempted to bully her into voting with the government.
That’s not all. A separate report also claimed that he sent expletive text messages to the former chief whip of the Conservative Party, Wendy Morton, because he was upset about not being invited to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
He warned Morton “not to push him about” and said that “there is a price for everything”. In one message, Sir Gavin claimed that she had tried to “f*** us all over”. He also allegedly accused Morton of punishing senior MPs who were out of favour with the Liz Truss government.
Morton lodged a formal complaint with the party headquarters and shared the messages with the Parliament’s bullying watchdog.
Sir Gavin’s colleagues have said that he gathered “salacious gossip” and used it against them. According to a report in Guardian, the MP had told a civil servant to “slit his throat” and “jump out of the window”.
Gavin Williamson is a close ally of Rishi Sunak. He remains a controversial figure in UK politics. AP
What is Sir Gavin saying?
The politician has denied all allegations against him and has maintained that he has not bullied anyone. His allies have also denied any threat, telling The Times, that he had only raised the personal issue in a “pastoral capacity” as the chief whip at the time.
In the resignation letter to Sunak, Sir Gavin wrote, “I am complying with this process and I have apologised to the recipient for those messages. Since then, there have been other allegations made about my past conduct. I refute the characterisation of these claims, but I recognise these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing for the British people.”
How has Sunak reacted?
Sunak accepted the resignation “with great sadness” and thanked Sir Gavin for his “personal support and loyalty”. He was appointed by the PM after he took the top job two weeks ago.
As a Cabinet minister, the accused MP was one of the top people running the country, reports BBC. He was a minister without a portfolio, which means that instead of being in charge of defence or health, he was a general contributor to the running of government.
The PM has claimed that he was aware of a “disagreement” but not the details of the exchange. He has said that abusive texts sent to a colleague “were not acceptable or right”.
Sunak now faces the Prime Minister’s Questions, where he is grilled on whether he was aware of the allegations against Sir Gavin. “I obviously regret appointing someone who has had to resign in these circumstances,” he said during the Questions in Parliament amid pressure from the Opposition.
The controversy questions Sunak’s judgement as the accused MP has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons in the past.
Rishi Sunak faces Prime Minister’s Questions, where he is being grilled on what he knew about the allegations against Sir Gavin. AP
What are Sir Gavin’s other controversies?
The MP was appointed by Theresa May as chief whip and parliamentary secretary to the Treasury in 2016. He was known for keeping a pet tarantula called Cronus on his desk during that time.
During a speech at the Conservative Party conference in 2017, Sir Gavin joked that, while he preferred to persuade colleagues through a carrot and stick approach, “it is amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot”, reports Independent.
In May 2019, he was fired as defence secretary over allegations of leaking information from National Security Council meetings. He denied having passed on information to Chinese telecom giant Huawei to help build Britain’s 5G network.
Sir Gavin made his way back into the government two years later when Boris Johnson became PM. As education secretary, he oversaw the exam fiasco during the pandemic but was fired when the premier decided to shuffle top jobs around in September 2021.
Interestingly, it was Johnson who knighted him for political service despite much criticism.
With inputs from agencies
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