Gavin Williamson has apologised in the Commons for bullying the Conservatives’ former chief whip 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 Elizabeth II’s funeral. The messages included Williamson telling Morton: “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 that his behaviour amounted to bullying but stepped down from the cabinet the following day.
Williamson told the house: “During this exchange I used intemperate and inappropriate language which I regret and I apologised for shortly after. My behaviour led to a complaint, the complaint was initially dismissed by the commissioner for parliamentary standards, however this decision was appealed and subsequently reversed by the independent expert panel.
“I accept the decision that my conduct constituted a breach of the bullying and harassment policy, and have since reflected on my behaviour. I reiterate my apology made to the complainant following the breach. I apologise to them again now and I apologise to the house fully and unreservedly. I will do my utmost to ensure this does not happen again.”
In its report on the allegations by Morton, the independent expert panel said: “Sir Gavin’s messages were an abuse of power.”
It said: “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 Liz Truss in her leadership campaign against Rishi Sunak that summer.
Williamson is one of the more divisive MPs on the Tory benches. He was sacked as defence secretary in 2019 after being accused of leaking sensitive information from the national security council about the role of the Chinese company Huawei in UK telecoms networks.
As chief whip under Theresa May, he was accused of using aggressive tactics to push fellow Conservative MPs to vote with the government. Anne Milton, the former Tory MP, said last year she thought Williamson saw himself as a version of Francis Urquhart, the scheming MP at the centre of the 1990 TV series House of Cards.
Williamson began his text exchange with Morton on 13 September by saying: “Think very poor how PC’s [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 by 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 by 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.
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.
Morton told the BBC she was satisfied with the outcome of the investigation, adding: “It has taken a long time. It’s felt like a rollercoaster.”
Williamson did not respond to a request for comment.
