Prime Minister’s Questions: Rishi Sunak says it is ‘absolutely right’ Gavin Williamson resigned – and admits ‘regret’ over appointment
Rishi Sunak has said it is “absolutely right” that Sir Gavin Williamson resigned and admitted he has “regret” over appointing him as a cabinet minister in light of the allegations he is facing.
The prime minister insisted he “did not know about any of the specific concerns” relating to Sir Gavin’s alleged “unacceptable” behaviour in his former positions.
His comments came after Sir Keir Starmer probed the prime minister on the allegation that Sir Gavin told a civil servant to slit their throat.
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“How does the prime minister think the victim of that bullying felt when he expressed great sadness at his resignation?” the Labour leader asked.
Mr Sunak replied: “Unequivocally, the behaviour complained of was unacceptable and it is absolutely right, it is absolutely right, that the right honourable gentleman has resigned.
“For the record, I did not know about any of the specific concerns relating to his conduct as secretary of state or chief whip, which date back some years.
“I believe that people in public life should treat others with consideration and respect, and those are the principles that this government will stand by.”
Sir Keir later referred to Sir Gavin as “a sad middle manager getting off on intimidating those beneath him” and a “cartoon bully with a pet spider”.
Calling the prime minister “so weak” for not removing Sir Gavin from his post, the Labour leader continued: “What message does he think it sends when rather than take on the bullies, he lines up alongside and thanks them for their loyalty?” Sir Keir said.
Mr Sunak replied: “I obviously regret appointing someone who has had to resign in these circumstances but I think what the British people would like to know is that when situations like this arise that they will be dealt with properly.
“And that’s why it is absolutely right that he resigned and it’s why it is absolutely right that there is an investigation to look into these matters properly. I said my government will be characterised by integrity, professionalism, and accountability and it will.”
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‘Do you regret appointing Gavin Williamson?’
Sir Gavin’s departure on Tuesday evening came shortly after an ex-civil servant – who claimed the MP told them to “slit your throat” – made a formal complaint.
A Number 10 source told Sky News it was Sir Gavin’s decision to resign following further allegations being made against him.
He is understood to have spoken to the PM in the early evening to offer his resignation.
In his resignation letter, the former cabinet minister vowed to clear his name of wrongdoing – and said he “refutes the characterisation of these claims”.
“I recognise these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing,” Sir Gavin wrote to Mr Sunak.
Accepting the resignation “with great sadness”, Mr Sunak told Sir Gavin: “I would like to thank you for your personal support and loyalty.”
Read more:
Gavin Williamson quits after formal complaint over ‘slit your throat’ remark
Sir Gavin – who had already been sacked by Theresa May and Boris Johnson – has also been accused of sending expletive-laden messages to former chief whip Wendy Morton where he complained about being refused an invitation to the Queen’s funeral.
He was also the subject of claims he bullied a former official at the Ministry of Defence and engaged in “unethical and immoral” behaviour while he was chief whip.
Late last night, Sir Gavin said he would not be taking severance pay, tweeting: “This is taxpayers’ money and it should go instead toward the government’s priorities like reducing the NHS’s waiting lists.”
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Williamson vows to clear his name
Senior Tory MPs have alleged to Sky News that Sir Gavin “has been bullying for most of his career” and that his behaviour has “always been well known”.
One senior Tory MP, who was in cabinet with Sir Gavin, told Sky News: “He’s a bully, no two ways about it, it’s well known, it’s always been well known.
“His only talent is bullying. It was a mistake for Rishi to give him a job.”
The senior MP also claimed Sir Gavin, who was chief whip under Mrs May, “modelled his whipping style” on US drama House of Cards.
Another senior Tory MP was even more disparaging of Sir Gavin, calling him “an absolute little sh***” who “should never have been allowed in government”.
The MP called his appointment to Mr Sunak’s cabinet “beyond the pale”, adding: “I’d be surprised if the Cabinet Office didn’t warn the PM there would be a dim view taken if he was given a job.
“I have no idea on earth why anyone would employ him, he’s been bullying for most of his career.
“The spider in the box, the idea he’s got something over somebody… it astonished us all when he got into cabinet.”
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Williamson ‘did right thing’ in resigning
The MP went on: “Thoroughly incompetent, thoroughly pathetic. He’s a nasty piece of work, who adds no value whatsoever. Rishi thinks he owes him, he doesn’t. If Gavin Williamson is the answer I don’t know what the hell the question is.”
Sky News has approached Sir Gavin for comment.
The PM’s press secretary said it would be a question for the Forfeiture Committee whether Sir Gavin should be stripped of his knighthood.
Sir Gavin’s third stint in the cabinet was by far his shortest, having made his return to the government only two weeks ago, when Mr Sunak appointed him as a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office.
World
Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
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Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
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‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
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Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
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He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
World
Journalist killed in Israeli strike feared his own assassination – as IDF claims he was a ‘terrorist’
Five Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza – including a reporter who feared he was going to be assassinated.
Anas al Sharif died alongside four of his colleagues from the network: Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had recently expressed “grave” concerns about al Sharif’s safety, and claimed he was “being targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign”.
Gazan journalist Anas al Sharif with his two children
Israel Defence Forces confirmed the strike – and alleged al Sharif was a “terrorist” who “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
It claimed he was “responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops”.
Last month, the reporter had said he lived with “the feeling that I could be bombed and martyred at any moment” because his coverage of Israel’s operations “harms them and damages their image in the world”.
As of 5 August, at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza – but foreign reporters have been barred from covering the war independently since the latest conflict began in 2023.
Gazan journalists Anas al Sharif and Mohammad Qreiqe
The Hamas-run government has described Israel’s killing of these five Al Jazeera journalists as “brutal and heinous”.
A statement added: “The assassination was premeditated and deliberate, following a deliberate, direct targeting of the journalists’ tent near al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“The targeting of journalists and media institutions by Israeli aircraft is a full-fledged war crime aimed at silencing the truth and obliterating the traces of genocidal crimes.”
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Inside the room with Netanyahu
Following Anas al Sharif’s death, a post described as his “last will and testament” was posted on X.
It read: “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”
The 28-year-old added that he laments being able to fulfil his dream of seeing his son and daughter grow up – and alleged he had witnessed children “crushed by thousands of tonnes of Israeli bombs and missiles”.
“Do not forget Gaza … and do not forget me in your prayers for forgiveness and acceptance,” he wrote.
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The CPJ reported that his father was killed by an Israeli airstrike on their family home in December 2023 after the journalist received telephone threats from Israeli army officers instructing him to cease coverage.
Israel shut down the Al Jazeera television network in the country in May last year.
For Ukraine – its exhausted, brave soldiers, its thousands of bereaved families mourning their dead, and its beleaguered president – it is exactly what they feared it would be.
They fear the compromise they will be forced to make will be messy, costly, unfair and ultimately beneficial to the invading tyrant who brought death and destruction to their sovereign land.
Six weeks ago, I spoke to President Zelenskyy in London.
War latest: Team Trump ‘risk being out of their depth’ at Putin meeting
I put it to him in our Sky News interview that Presidents Trump and Putin were heading towards making a deal between themselves, a grand bargain, in which Ukraine was but one piece on the chessboard.
Zelenskyy smiled as if to acknowledge the reality ahead.
He paused and then he said this: “We are not going to be a card in talks between great nations, and we will never accept that… I definitely do not want to see global deals between America and Russia.
“We don’t need it. We are a separate story, a victim of Russian aggression and we will not reward it.”
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In full: Volodymyr Zelenskyy interview
It was a response that betrayed his greatest fear – that this will become essentially a Trump negotiation in which Zelenskyy and Ukraine will be told “take it or leave it”.
And, by the way, if you “leave it”, then it will be painful.
Harsh realities
It’s the prospect that now confronts Zelenskyy as Trump and Putin plough ahead on a course that has clear attractions for both of them.
Of course, Zelenskyy is right to say there can be no deal without Ukraine. But there are harsh realities at play here.
Trump wants a deal on Ukraine – any deal – that he can chalk up as a win. He wants it badly and he wants it now.
It’s the impediment to a broader strategic deal with Putin and he wants it out of the way. It’s what he does, and it’s the way he does it. And President Putin knows it.
He knows Trump, he sees an opportunity in Trump, and he can’t get across Russia to Alaska fast enough. He will be back at global diplomacy’s top table.
Always a deal to be done
Make no mistake, when Trump says he just wants to stop the killing, he means it. Such wanton loss of young lives offends him. He keeps saying it.
He sees war, by and large, as an unnecessary waste of life and of money. Deals are there to be done. There’s always a deal.
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Is Trump out of his depth with Putin summit? – Professor Michael Clarke
Sadly for Ukraine, in this case, it is unlikely to be a fair deal.
How can any deal be “fair” when you are the victim of outrageous brutality and heinous crimes.
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But it may well be the deal they have to take unless they want to fight an increasingly one-sided war with much less help from Trump and America.
A senior UK diplomat told me if things turn out as feared, it should not be called a land-for-peace deal. It should be called annexation “because that’s what it is”.
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But here’s the rub.
Peace, calm, the end of the nightly terror of war has much to recommend it. In short, a bad peace can often seem better than no peace. But, ultimately, rewarded dictators always come back for more.
If Ukraine has to accept a bad peace, then it will want clear security guarantees to make sure it cannot happen again.
It is the very least they deserve.
There is much at stake in Alaska.
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