Calls for ‘urgent independent investigation’ as shadow minister says reappointment of Gavin Williamson ‘not in the public interest’
Ed Miliband has called for an “urgent independent investigation” into the reappointment of Sir Gavin Williamson who faces bullying allegations.
The new Cabinet Office minister allegedly sent abusive text messages to ex-chief whip Wendy Morton complaining that he and other colleagues had been excluded from the Queen’s funeral for political reasons.
Speaking on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, Labour’s shadow climate secretary warned against a “cover-up” or a “whitewash” over the allegations relating to Sir Gavin.
Mr Miliband said the matter “really calls into question Rishi Sunak’s judgment and the way he made decisions about his cabinet”, adding Sir Gavin’s reappointment was “not in the public interest”.
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He continued: “We already know about the whole Suella Braverman issue: being reappointed six days after she resigned.
“It was very noticeable… that Oliver Dowden couldn’t deny that Rishi Sunak knew about those issues to do with potential bullying against Wendy Morton, the chief whip, by Gavin Williamson and yet he reappointed him.
“What it says is that Rishi Sunak was making decisions simply in his own narrow short-term interest as far as the Conservative Party leadership was concerned, not the national interest.
“And there needs to be an urgent independent investigation into exactly what happened. We can’t have a cover-up, we can’t have a whitewash here.
“What did Rishi Sunak know? When did he know it? What did Gavin Williamson do and what are the implications of that?”
Speaking to Sophy Ridge earlier in the programme, Oliver Dowden said the PM knew there was a “difficult relationship” between Sir Gavin and the-then chief whip, but “wasn’t aware” of “specific allegations” until “last night”.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said the PM still has confidence in Sir Gavin – who was appointed as a Cabinet Office minister in the recent reshuffle – and that there are no current plans to remove him from his post.
Mr Dowden added that Sir Gavin “regrets the language he used” and also suggested that a number of individuals had “a difficult relationship” with Ms Morton.
Screenshots leaked to The Sunday Times appear to show expletive-laden messages from the South Staffordshire MP, including a warning that “there is a price for everything”.
Another message reads “think very poor how [Privy Councillors] who aren’t favoured have been excluded from the funeral”.
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Miliband calls for bullying review
A source confirmed to Sky News that the contents of the messages were accurate.
Asked about the allegations, Mr Dowden told Sky News: “He (Mr Sunak) was aware that there was a difficult relationship between the chief whip and a number of backbenchers, of which Gavin Williamson was one.”
Mr Dowden said that Sir Gavin regretted sending the messages to Ms Morton at what had been a “difficult time” for the Conservative Party.
“These were sent in the heat of the moment expressing frustration. It was a difficult time for the party. He now accepts that he shouldn’t have done it and he regrets doing so. Thankfully we are in a better place now as a party.”
Mr Dowden continued: “He shouldn’t have sent those messages. And he says that he regrets it. But of course, the prime minister continues to have confidence in Gavin Williamson as a minister.”
‘Dowden’s casual defence of Williamson is just wrong’
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries dismissed Mr Dowden’s defence of Sir Gavin.
“Oliver Dowden stated Williamson’s behaviour excusable because he had difficult relationship with Morton. Any woman would have same with any man who tried to bully, threaten and intimidate her. Oliver Dowden’s casual defence of Williamson is just wrong and totally indefensible,” she posted on social media.
Former chairman of the Conservative Party, Sir Jake Berry, has said he told Mr Sunak a bullying complaint had been made against Sir Gavin a day before he entered Number 10.
Sir Gavin has been approached for comment.
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Reshuffle: Who’s in, who’s out?
The Sunday Times quoted the Cabinet Office minister as saying: “I of course regret getting frustrated about the way colleagues and I felt we were being treated. I am happy to speak with Wendy and I hope to work positively with her in the future as I have in the past.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper accused Mr Sunak of ignoring the complaint and called for Sir Gavin to be sacked.
Downing Street has said it will not be commenting.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The Conservative Party has a robust complaints process in place. This process is rightly a confidential one, so that complainants can come forward in confidence.”
Sir Gavin was sacked as defence secretary in 2019 following the leaking of confidential information from the National Security Council.
After being appointed education secretary by Boris Johnson, he was dismissed from cabinet again in 2021 following controversy around the grading of exams during the pandemic.
It marks the second major controversy to erupt over Mr Sunak’s cabinet appointments, with the PM already under fire for making Suella Braverman his home secretary days after she was sacked for security breaches.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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