The Ministry of Defense official told the Guardian Williamson made the extraordinary comments in front of other civil servants at a meeting and on a separate occasion told them to “jump out of the window”. The Whitehall aide, who worked closely with the cabinet minister, claimed Williamson “deliberately humiliates and intimidates” them on a regular basis. They reported the behavior informally to the head of human resources at the Ministry of National Defense and kept contemporaneous notes of the alleged incidents, but decided not to file a formal complaint against the cabinet at the time. Williamson, who was defense secretary from November 2017 to May 2019 when he was sacked following a leak from the national security council, is said to have “shouted and raged”. The senior civil servant, who later left the government, said the abuse was so bad that a senior military aide working in the department later apologized for not calling it out. Williamson denied bullying the public servant and said he had a good working relationship with his officials. However, the Guardian understands he does not deny using those particular words. In a statement, he said: “I categorically reject this allegation and have a good working relationship with the many brilliant officials I have worked with across government. No specific allegations were ever brought to my attention.” The claims come after Downing Street said No 10 had “full confidence” in the Cabinet minister despite the emergence of allegations of bullying and abusive text messages he sent to former Conservative leader Wendy Morton. Speaking at the Cop27 summit in Egypt, Rishi Sunak said: “There is an independent investigation into allegations happening and it is right to let that process run its course before we judge. I want to see the results of that, obviously, but I’ve been very clear that the language is not right, it’s not acceptable. And that’s why I welcome the fact that Gavin Williamson has expressed his regret about it and now we wait to see what the inquiry says.” The latest allegation raises even more questions for the prime minister about his political judgement, after he decided to reappoint Williamson – a close political ally believed to have been instrumental in his leadership campaign – to the government despite being aware of Morton’s complaint. Text messages revealed at the weekend included angry protests at not being invited to the Queen’s funeral and one saying “there is a price for everything”. The prime minister’s spokesman said on Monday that Sunak had a zero-tolerance approach to bullying but refused to fire Williamson, claiming he had made a “significant contribution to government”. 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. Meanwhile, the Times reported on Monday that an MP claimed that Williamson, when he was chief whip in 2016, threatened her with potentially revealing details about her private life. The MP was now a minister, the newspaper reported. He told the newspaper that he called her into his office when he was campaigning on a politically sensitive issue and mentioned something about her private life “which he interpreted as an implied threat”. Williamson’s allies, who were not named, said this was not a threat and that he had raised the issue in a “pastoral capacity”. ‘He wasn’t right to send them,’ says Grant Shapps on Gavin Williamson’s abusive texts – video Grant Shapps, the business secretary, said the messages should not have been sent, telling Sky News: “I don’t think it was the right thing to do, to send messages like that. I see they must have been sent in a moment of frustration. I think that, in general, it’s much better to write things that you wouldn’t live to regret later.” Williamson was first sacked as defense secretary by Theresa May after he allegedly leaked details of a national security council meeting – a claim he has always denied. and later as education secretary by Boris Johnson for the A-level Covid 19 debacle. Labor and the Lib Dems called on Sunak to sack Williamson, with Keir Starmer saying: “It is so disappointing that we are once again debating the Prime Minister’s crisis, this time in relation to Gavin Williamson. He clearly has people around the cabinet office who are not fit to be there.”
