Rishi Sunak is facing scrutiny over whether he knew about Gavin Williamson’s alleged harassment of a senior civil servant he told to “cut your throat” before re-appointing him to the government.
Two sources said the prime minister had been warned about Williamson’s “credible and well-founded misconduct” while he was defense secretary when he was putting together his cabinet.
One of them said Sunak was given a “broadcast” of the alleged harassment incident at the Defense Department, but gave Williamson the job anyway.
However, Downing Street strongly rejected claims that Sunak and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case knew about the harassment allegations before they were reported by the Guardian.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sunak admitted he regretted bringing Williamson back into the Cabinet as he faced questions about his judgement, but insisted he was not aware of “any of the specific concerns” surrounding Williamson’s time in previous roles.
He told MPs: “Obviously I regret appointing someone who should have resigned in these circumstances. But I think what the British people would like to know is that when situations like this arise, they will be dealt with properly.
“That is why it is absolutely right that he has resigned and that is why it is absolutely right that there is an inquiry to properly look at these matters.
Williamson resigned from the Cabinet on Tuesday after the Guardian revealed claims that while he was defense secretary he told a former senior civil servant to “cut your throat”. Williamson said the allegations had become a “distraction” for the government and he wanted to clear his name.
It followed allegations he sent profanity-laden messages to former Conservative chief minister Wendy Morton complaining about not being invited to the Queen’s funeral.
Former deputy chief whip Ann Milton claimed Williamson used “unethical and immoral” methods while in charge of party discipline as chief whip. She told Channel 4: “I think he feels like Francis Urquhart from House of Cards.”
Another former colleague told the Guardian they remembered Williamson being “remarkably rude” to civil servants who gave him a presentation.
He is now the subject of three separate investigations into his conduct – two by Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievances Office and one internal investigation by the Conservative Party.
Keir Starmer accused Sunak of being unable to stand up to a “cartoonish bully with a pet spider” as she blasted him for appointing Williamson – who as Theresa May’s chief whip kept a pet tarantula in his office as part of a calculated image of menace – and then expressed “great sadness” at his departure.
“Everybody in the country knows someone like [Williamson], a sad middle manager who is starting to intimidate those below him,” the Labor leader said at PMQs. “But everyone in the country also knows someone like the prime minister, the boss, who is so weak, so worried that the hooligans will turn on him, that he hides behind them.”
PMQs: Williamson ‘a cartoon bully with a pet spider’, says Starmer – video highlights
Williamson’s resignation raised fresh doubts among some Conservative MPs about Sunak’s political judgement, after he faced questions about reappointing Suella Braverman as home secretary after she was forced out over a breach of the ministerial code.
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The Guardian has been told that Case and his team informally informed Sunak, as is standard practice, of any potential risks associated with ministerial appointments.
A well-known Whitehall insider claimed that Keyes had given the Prime Minister “a general description, not the exact wording” of the MoD incident.
Another source said the prime minister had been told about Williamson’s reputation for “collecting and using extortion” and “violent and vulgar language” when speaking to aides and MPs, and that he was “irresponsible” with secure information.
A government spokesman said: “All allegations made in this story are categorically false.”
Sunak’s allies suggested that the Cabinet did not have information about even the basics of the Defense Department incident. However, the Guardian has been told that Stephen Lovegrove, then Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, was aware of the specific allegation that Williamson had harassed a senior civil servant and is believed to have passed it on to Cabinet.
A senior Tory source confirmed that Lovegrove had informed both the political side of Operation No 10 and Mark Sedwill, Case’s predecessor as Cabinet Secretary, that there had been an informal complaint against Williamson – but had told them that the Ministry of Defense wanted to deal with it internally.
“We were made aware of issues with how Gavin was behaving towards civil servants in the department. It was the Cabinet Secretary’s responsibility to brief the propriety and ethics team,” they said.
Williamson is a divisive figure in Westminster, where he is viewed with suspicion by many Tory MPs because of his reputation as an inveterate conspirator. Downing Street said the MP, who was previously sacked as defense secretary and education secretary, offered his resignation to Sunak in a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday evening.
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