Gavin Williamson has been around the block a little bit. Defence Secretary. Sacked due to Huawei leakings. Education Minister. Sacked in Johnson’s reshuffle. Minister of State. Resigned due to allegations of bullying and misconduct.
Mr Williamson is evidently an experienced minister (or not, depending on how you value ministerial musical chairs). However, experienced or not does not give anyone the right to tell someone to ‘slit your throat’ and ‘jump out of the window’. Leaked text messages also show the true persona of Williamson, getting quite upset that he had not been on the short list to be an attendee at the Queen’s funeral. This disclosure has led to Williamson handing in his resignation, stating that he will resign as Minister of State to fully engage with the complaints process but also to clear his name. Considering the texts were leaked, can you really ever clear it? If you wouldn’t say it to your nan, should you really say it at all, Gavin?
Whilst this reflects badly on Williamson, it doesn’t look too great for Sunak either. It begs into question how he decided who joined his cabinet. Surely the fact that Williamson had leaked confidential documents would play on Sunak’s mind on who to appoint, especially after the controversy of Suella Braverman being re-appointed into her position of Home Secretary after she sent confidential emails to non-approved recipients. Sunak looks pretty weak in his appointments. Considering that Dominic Raab is also facing inquiries over misconduct and bullying allegations, with Raab himself has requesting that the allegations be investigated by an independent advisor. Ultimately, within weeks of Sunak’s appointment as PM, it appears that his cabinet is filled with skeletons in the closet, leaving us all wondering what will come out next. Considering the economy just having tanked and having three different PMs in one year, and Sunak himself not being democratically elected, having a cabinet that doesn’t constantly face misconduct allegations would be a bonus.
Let us not forget that Williamson caused a lot of chaos on the 2020 A-Level result day. Of the 700,000 teacher assessments that were submitted, 39.1 per cent were downgraded. However, private schools were not really affected by the grade fluctuations. I guess that you can really pay your way. Not really that shocking or surprising. Surprising that he stayed in this position really. Or not.
Williamson has made some interesting decisions within his career. You would think some of his previous choices would have been career ending. Maybe this one will be. But, given his track record, and the UK’s current lack of luck, he may not be gone for good.
“File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP crop 2.jpg” by Richard Townshend is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
