Gavin Williamson, who served as defence secretary from 2017 to 2019 in the cabinet of then-Prime Minister Theresa May, once threatened the government with "the world's biggest s**tshow" if he was sacked, claims a new book of memoirs, as cited by the Daily Mail.
"Having set out why he felt he was being badly treated, Gavin moved on to threats. If we thought he was the kind of person who would take the blame for something he hadn't done, we were misjudging his personality. And if the prime minister tried to get rid of him, there would be the world's biggest s***show", writes Gavin Barwell.
The author of the punchy new book, "Chief of Staff: Notes From No10", opens the lid on some of the secrets hailing back to the time of May's government. According to Gavin Barwell, May regretted giving Willamson, currently serving as education secretary, a cabinet position.
"Boris Johnson chose to bring him back as education secretary, and he has struggled in that role, too", asserts the memoir.
The senior Tory was eventually booted out by Theresa May after he was implicated in a leak of confidential discussions about Chinese firm Huawei's involvement in the development of Britain's future 5G network. At the time, Williamson vehemently denied any involvement in the affair.
This comes as fears have been raised that Williamson could resort to similar intimidation regarding Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet should sacking him be mulled. The education secretary has been under fire over a succession of scandals.
This week saw him plunged into a racism row after he mistook Three Lions striker Marcus Rashford, an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Manchester United and the England national team, for rugby union player Maro Itoje. Williamson has since apologised for his blunder, made in a gaffe-infused interview with the Evening Standard where he said he had met Rashford via Zoom, only to discover it was rugby player Itoje he had talked to.
Minister of State for Social Care Helen Whately, said it was "highly unlikely" the education secretary was being racist.
Westminster Reshuffle
Amid rumours of a possible reshuffle in Westminster, Gavin Williamson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have been tipped as likely to be diched. Raab has been fending off heavy criticism for his handling of the Afghanistan crisis, when he delayed an in-person response to the volatile events by continuing with his Crete vacation.
Gavin Williamson is seen by many as having botched the management of schools and exams during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, the A-level fiasco saw thousands of students have their marks downgraded by a controversial algorithm, before Ofqual announced an about-face. At a press conference, however, Boris Johnson repeatedly dodged questions about a shakeup. A source was cited by the outlet as saying the PM had assured them a reshuffle would not happen "on any scale" in the coming weeks. "But with the PM you can never be completely certain", added the insider.