Gavin Williamson: his gaffes, scandals and controversies

Gavin Williamson has resigned as a minister after a string of allegations, including that he told a senior civil servant to “slit your throat”.

It is not the first time he has lost a government job, however. Since taking up his first ministerial role in 2017, Williamson has been dogged by scandals and controversies. Here is a reminder of his worst moments:

March 2018 – ‘Russia should go away and shut up’

Asked in a question and answer session how the Kremlin should respond to the expulsion of 23 of its spies after the Salisbury nerve agent attack, Williamson, the then defence secretary, said: “Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up.”

May 2019 – sacked for leaking

Williamson was sacked as defence secretary in 2019 by then prime minister Theresa May over a leak from the national security council about Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s 5G network. Williamson conceded he had talked to the media, but denied discussing the details behind the meeting.

Summer 2020 – the A-level U-turn

During the Covid crisis Williamson was forced to U-turn on the decision to award students grades based on a computer algorithm, 48 hours after the results were issued. While these were challenging circumstances, Williamson was criticised for ignoring warnings and defending his position as chaos erupted on results day, damaging students’ university prospects and their faith in the education system.

Subsequently, teaching unions warned that schools and parents had lost confidence in Williamson’s capabilities as they braced for another year of school disruption and closures.

September 2021 – mistaking Marcus Rashford

Williamson was not personally to blame for deciding against extending the provision of free school meals during the holidays – a decision made and subsequently revoked by Boris Johnson in response to a campaign led by the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford. But his role leading the Department for Education meant he was connected with the embarrassment, and he committed a serious gaffe of his own, telling a newspaper he had held a Zoom meeting with Rashford, when in fact he had met a different black sports star, the rugby player Maro Itoje.

November 2022 – threatening Wendy Morton

Since being returned to the cabinet by Rishi Sunak, Williamson has been dogged by a series of allegations about abusive behaviour. The first of these related to furious messages sent to Wendy Morton, at the time Liz Truss’s chief whip, over having not been invited to attend the Queen’s funeral. Williamson messaged Morton to say this was “very poor” and that he believed it was in keeping with the treatment of MPs not favoured by Truss. He wrote: “Also don’t forget I know how this works so don’t puss me about. Well let’s see how many more times you fuck us all over. There is a price for everything.”

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Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. November 2022 – coded threats

The Times reported that a female Conservative MP claimed that when Williamson was chief whip in 2016, he raised something about her private life, “which she interpreted as a tacit threat”. The MP, who is now a minister, said Williamson called her to his office when she was campaigning on a politically sensitive issue. An ally of Williamson did not deny that the meeting had happened, but said it had been conducted in a “pastoral capacity”.

November 2022 – ‘slit your throat’ allegations

The third and most dramatic revelation came from a senior civil servant, who claimed that Williamson had told them to “slit your throat” in what they felt was a sustained campaign of bullying while he was defence secretary.

The Ministry of Defence official said they had been told to “jump out of the window” on a separate occasion, and claimed that Williamson “deliberately demeaned and intimidated” them on a regular basis, with a temperament that “shouted and raged”.