Gavin Williamson told to apologise and have behaviour training for bullying former Tory chief whip

Sir Gavin Williamson will have to apologise to the Commons and undergo behavioural training after having been found to have bullied his Conservative colleague Wendy Morton in a series of text messages in 2022.

The former cabinet minister was found to have abused his power when he sent Morton the messages in September 2022 complaining about not getting a seat at the queen’s funeral. The messages included Williamson telling Morton, who was then chief whip: “Well let’s see how many more times you fuck us all over. There is a price for everything.”

The Guardian revealed shortly afterwards that Williamson had also been accused of bullying civil servants when he was defence secretary, including telling one to “slit your throat” and “jump out of a window”. Williamson denied his behaviour amounted to bullying but stepped down from the cabinet the following day.

In its report on the allegations by Morton, the independent expert panel said: “Sir Gavin’s messages were an abuse of power.” It added: “His conduct had gone beyond vigorous complaint or political disagreement to a threat to lever his power and authority as a former chief whip to undermine her personally as revenge for her (as he saw it) denying him a ticket to the funeral.”

In his messages, which were first published by the Sunday Times, Williamson complained bitterly about not getting a seat at the funeral. He claimed he was being punished for not supporting the then prime minister, Liz Truss, in her leadership campaign against her rival Rishi Sunak that summer.

He began his text exchange with Morton on 13 September by saying: “Think very poor how PCs [members of the privy council] who aren’t favoured have been excluded from the funeral. Very poor and sends a very clear message.”

When Morton told him this was not the case he followed up, saying: “Don’t forget I know how this works so don’t puss me about.” When she continued to insist there was no space for him to attend the funeral, he responded: “It’s very clear how you are going to treat a number of us, which is very stupid and you are showing fuck all interest in pulling things together. Don’t bother asking anything from me.”

He ended the conversation saying: “You are using her death to punish people who are just supportive, absolutely disgusting.”

The panel overturned a decision by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, who found that Williamson’s text messages did not amount to bullying because his threat to withdraw support for the government did not constitute an abuse of power.

However, the panel said the messages were threatening, intimidating and undermining, and said Greenberg had failed to take into account the tone of Williamson’s language and the obscenities he used.