By Emily Caulkett-
Evidence of Sir Gavin Williamson’s bullying that included deplorable expletives exposes a lack of discipline, and shines a touch on some of the bad practises that exist in Parliament.
Williamson’s expletives, as disgraceful as a street thug from the gutter, exposed the lack of professionalism in some aspects of government. Government ministers know the standard of conduct expected of them, but too often fall short. Mr.Williamson’s unguarded conduct exposed a lack of development.
His conduct amounted to low personal standards, in swearing at people rather pursuing a complaint procedure.
It smacks of a lack of personal development when those who are meant to be our leaders are swearing in their job said Sheila Mckenzie, personal life coach. Those who are leading us ought to know how to talk and conduct themselves. It is disgraceful to see our leaders behave like this. You mean Mr. Williamson couldn’t deal with Liz Truss, so reduced himself to intimidating and bullish language. The reason Liz Truss excluded some from the Queen’s funeral should be properly looked at too, but there was no excuse for Mr. Williamson to behave that way.
Hortensia Daniels, a former teacher told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”leadership is about example, those leading the country should have standards of decency and strong ethics, otherwise what is their leadership based on? A minister swearing at individuals does not show leadership, and reduces their esteem in the sight of the public. They ought to be pace setters and set high standards for the public to emulate. Williamson let himself down. If there were unjustified reasons Ms Truss was marginalising a particular group of Mps, he should have followed the appropriate procedures in making his complaints known.
”Swearing stooped to low. Liz Truss’s own judgement in leaving people out of the invitation form the Queen’s funeral can be assessed too”.
Mr. Williamson had come under increasing fire following a series of expletive-laden text messages sent by him to Tory colleague and then-Chief Whip Wendy Morton were published in the Sunday Times.
On Monday a senior civil servant told the Guardian Sir Gavin had bullied them and told them to “slit your throat”.Anne Milton, who worked as deputy chief whip between 2015 and 2017, told Channel 4 News on Tuesday that Sir Gavin’s behaviour had been “threatening” and “intimidating”.
Downing Street said it had been seeking to establish the facts about the reported comments to the civil servant.
The Former Education Secretary found himself in hot water following revelations about bullying charcaterised with venemos and intimidating words.
Sir Gavin had also been reported to the MPs’ bullying watchdog – the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) – over his WhatsApps to Ms Morton.
Ongoing Complaint Process
In his resignation letter, Sir Gavin said he would comply with “an ongoing complaints process concerning texts he sent to a colleague” and added that he had “apologised to the recipient for those messages”.
In the texts, he appears to complain MPs not “favoured” by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss were being excluded from attending the Queen’s funeral at Westminster Abbey. The full details of that complain, and the story behind it on the part of former prime minister, Liz Truss, will form an interesting part of the situation in the days and weeks ahead.
He apparently accused Ms Morton of “rigging” the ticket allocation to punish people – including himself – who were not supportive enough of Ms Truss.
Sir Gavin reportedly warned Ms Morton “not to push him about” and that “there is a price for everything”.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Sunak said the language was “not acceptable” but asked if it amounted to bullying, he said it was “right” to let an independent complaints process conclude.
This is the third time Sir Gavin has left government. In 2019 he was sacked as defence secretary after details of Huawei’s potential involvement in the UK’s 5G network were leaked.
He was brought back to the cabinet, as education secretary by Boris Johnson, in 2019, but lost the job in 2021 following turmoil over A-Level exam results.
During the summer Sir Gavin helped run Mr Sunak’s first campaign to become prime minister.
Sir Gavin Williamson was then given a job as a Cabinet Office minister when Sunak came into power.
Ex-Conservative Party Chair Jake Berry has said he told Mr Sunak about Ms Morton’s complaint on 24 October – the day before Sir Gavin’s appointment.
No 10 has said the prime minister “knew there was a disagreement” but he didn’t know “the substance” of messages until they were published in the Sunday Times.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “This is yet another example of Rishi Sunak’s poor judgement and weak leadership.
“As families struggle during a cost-of-living crisis made in Downing Street, yet another Tory government has descended into chaos.”
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said: “Rishi Sunak has serious questions to answer about why he appointed Gavin Williamson, then stood by him instead of sacking him.
“His promise to lead a government of integrity has now been left in tatters.”
The SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster Kirsten Oswald said: “As the Westminster chaos continues to unfurl, there can be no doubt that independence is the only way to escape this dysfunctional system for good.