“don’t push me”
Williamson’s current political turmoil predates his appointment by Sunack as a Cabinet minister over angry and abusive messages he sent over the summer to Wendy Morton, who was Liz Truss’ chief whip. Incensed at not being invited to attend the Queen’s funeral, Williamson texted Morton to say that this was “very poor” and seemed to indicate the style of treatment received by MPs out of favor with Truss. “Also, don’t forget I know how this works so don’t pressure me,” she wrote, adding: “So let’s see how many times you’re going to fuck us all over the place. There is a price for everything.”
Alleged threat as a whip
After the messages to Morton surfaced, The Times reported that a female Conservative MP claimed that, when Williamson was chief whip in 2016, he threatened her with potentially revealing details about her private life. The MP, who is now a minister, told the newspaper that Williamson called her into his office when she was campaigning on a politically sensitive issue and raised something about her private life “which he interpreted as an implied threat”. A Williamson ally did not deny the conversation but said he had raised the personal issue in a “pastoral capacity”.
A-level fiasco
Williamson lasted just two years as education secretary under Boris Johnson, but no one is quite sure how. Its low point came with the debacle of its A-level rating in 2020 at the height of the Covid crisis. No one doubted that replacing test scores with an alternative method of grading students would be difficult. But Williamson was criticized, first for ignoring warnings that it would be a problem, and then, when we came up with the apparently unfair grades, for standing by the controversial combination of a computer algorithm and teacher evaluations. There was, inevitably, a reversal 48 hours later, but by then much of the damage – to university opportunities for students and public confidence – had already been done.
Schools and Covid
It is argued that many of the major decisions about school closures and catch-up efforts were largely made in Downing Street. But teachers’ unions had little confidence in Williamson and his department on several related issues, including providing laptops and other technology to students who needed them and helping schools become safer from Covid once they reopen.
Free school meals – and no meeting with Marcus Rashford
Then again, it was arguably Boris Johnson’s fault that the government twice pushed back against calls to extend free school meals or vouchers for the poorest children in the holidays, only to back down under PR pressure from Rashford, the Manchester footballer United and anti-poverty fighter. However, it was Williamson’s department that was responsible. And Williamson was very wrong when he told a newspaper that he had a Zoom meeting with Rashford, when in fact he had met a different black athlete, rugby player Maro Itoje. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Fired for leaking
In another situation that would have permanently sunk the career of almost any other politician, Williamson was sacked as defense secretary in 2019 by then-prime minister Theresa May, who had brought him into the cabinet, initially as chief whip. May said she had seen “compelling” evidence that Williamson leaked information from a highly sensitive National Security Council meeting about Chinese telecoms company Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s 5G network. Williamson admitted he had spoken to the media but denied discussing anything about the meeting.
“Russia should go away and shut up”
It is fair to say that, before his sacking, some were concerned that Williamson did not have the clout to be Defense Secretary. This impression was crystallized in March 2018 during a question and answer session after a speech in Bristol. Asked about the expulsion of Russian intelligence personnel from the UK after the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Williamson condemned Russian actions before saying: “Frankly, Russia needs to go away and shut up.”
