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Gavin Williamson announces resignation but ‘refutes the characterisation’ of claims against him – UK politics live | Politics

Williamson accused of ‘threatening’ behaviour by former deputy chief whip

Anne Milton, the former deputy chief whip Anne Milton who worked closely with Sir Gavin Williamson when he was chief whip, has claimed he used “leverage” and threats to control MPs and instil a culture of fear in Westminster.

Milton told Channel 4 News of an alleged incident, when she says that the whips’ office gave some financial assistance to an MP: “I do remember him asking me to give the MP in question the cheque. And he waved it under my nose and said: ‘Make sure when you give him this cheque, he knows I now own him.’”

Milton said: “I don’t think it was a joke. It was the seriousness with which he said it. And I think that the bottom line is, if instances accord with your overall experience with somebody, then you believe them.”

She added that she gave the MP the cheque but didn’t pass on Williamson’s message.

Milton alleges Williamson behaved in an “unethical and immoral” and “shocking” manner during his time as chief whip between July 2016 and November 2017.

She also accused Williamson of using MPs’ mental and physical health problems as “leverage”.

Milton describes Williamson’s behaviour while chief whip as “threatening” and “intimidating”.

She added: “It’s an image he cultivates. I think he feels that he’s Francis Urquhart from House of Cards.”

“Make sure when you give him this cheque he knows that I now own him.”

Sir Gavin Williamson has been accused of issuing an inappropriate threat to an MP in financial trouble by former deputy chief whip Anne Milton, who used to work with him when he was chief whip. pic.twitter.com/bo8WTBkGmQ

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 8, 2022

Key events

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Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper has said in response to Gavin Williamson’s resignation, “This should be the third and final time Gavin Williamson is forced out of the Cabinet.”

Williamson’s letter, released on his Twitter account, says he refutes “the characterisation of these claims” regarding the further allegations of bullying that have been made.

But Williamson added in his resignation letter “I recognise these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing”.

The former Cabinet Office minister said he had decided to “step back from government” while the complaints process into his conduct is carried out, vowing to “clear my name of any wrongdoing”.

Gavin Williamson resigns from government

Gavin Williamson has announced he is resigning.

Aletha Adu

Boris Johnson has nominated his fiercest cheerleaders for peerages, with two of his former aides set to become the youngest life peers in history.

The former prime minister has selected more than a dozen of his closest allies to head to the Lords, as part of a resignations list longer than David Cameron’s and Theresa May’s combined. Here are some of the key figures.

Formal complaint made against Williamson by former senior civil servant

A former senior civil servant who claimed Sir Gavin Williamson told them to “slit your throat” has made a formal complaint against him.

The allegations were first reported in the Guardian on Monday and included claims that Williamson, who was the defence secretary at the time, told the official on another occasion to “jump out of the window”.

The Ministry of Defence official claimed his behaviour amounted to a sustained campaign of bullying.

The official, who later left government, said Williamson “deliberately demeaned and intimidated” them on a regular basis.

The former civil servant told Sky News his “words and actions had an extreme impact on my mental health”.

Williamson, who ran the department between November 2017 until May 2019, said: “I strongly reject this allegation and have enjoyed good working relationships with the many brilliant officials I have worked with across government.

“No specific allegations have ever been brought to my attention.”

From the Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti.

The next phase of a high-stakes inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament over Partygate faces being delayed as a result of government failures to provide crucial evidence to MPs, sources have told the Guardian.

Despite a range of documents – including the former prime minister’s diaries, event email invites, No 10 entry logs, briefing papers and WhatsApp messages – being requested more than three months ago, some have not been handed over yet.

Angela Rayner says: “Rishi Sunak claims to herald a new age of integrity but is still up to the same old dirty tricks of cover-up and distortion. The government must come clean about the taxpayers’ money wasted on contracting legal advice for Boris Johnson’s law-breaking.”

— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) November 8, 2022

The former Ministry of Defence official who claims they were bullied by Gavin Williamson has now complained to parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, putting more pressure on Rishi Sunak over his decision to reappoint his ally, the Guardian can reveal, write Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason.

In a statement, the complainant said they had an “incredibly difficult period” working for Williamson at the MoD and that the alleged bullying had taken “an extreme impact” on their mental health.

In a separate development, two further sources who spoke to the Guardian claimed that during his time as chief whip Williamson had been heard joking or boasting about the effect his tactics had on the mental health of those he worked with, with one saying it had “made people uncomfortable”.

Williamson, whose political future is now hanging in the balance, is now facing three separate inquiries into his behaviour, two with the ICGS and the other an internal Conservative party investigation. Two relate to the same incident involving the former chief whip Wendy Morton.

Ireland’s taoiseach (prime minister) has warned that if the current generation does not urgently step up to act on climate change, future generations will “not forgive us”.

Micheál Martin told the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt that Ireland was doing all it can to reach its climate targets.

Giving Ireland’s national climate statement at the c summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Martin said that as political leaders, it was their responsibility to drive the transformation necessary.

“What were once exceptional events are now occurring with increased frequency and ferocity.

“People in the poorest parts on the planet are being driven from regions that can no longer support and sustain them.

“Climate change is fuelling conflict, global instability, competition for resources and abject human misery.

“If this generation doesn’t step up urgently, future generations will not forgive us.”

Labour MP Sarah Owen, the first MP of south-east Asian heritage, has said she does not accept Mark Francois’s explanation for using the term “Japs” during proceedings in the Commons on Monday.

Francois said he “meant absolutely no disrespect or offence to anyone” by using the term and that he “merely used it as an abbreviation for Japanese”.

He said he had been asking an “admittedly rather wordy question, about naval shipbuilding” and “actually complimented the Japanese shipbuilding industry for building warships much faster than here in Britain”.

Owen said Francois should have just said “Japanese”.

She told Sky News: “We all know what he really meant. ‘Japs’ has a long history of being derogatory and should be avoided, in the same way we say ‘Pakistanis’ and ‘Chinese’, rather than short terms which have offensive connotations.”

A Plaid Cymru Senedd member has been suspended from his party’s group over allegations he breached the parliament’s code of conduct.

The party said Rhys ab Owen had been temporarily suspended pending the conclusion of an investigation by the Senedd standards commissioner.

Owen, a barrister, was first elected to represent the South Wales Central region in 2021.

A Plaid Cymru Senedd group spokesman said: “Rhys ab Owen MS, Plaid Cymru member of the Senedd for South Wales Central, and the Plaid Cymru group in the Senedd, have mutually agreed to his temporary suspension from the Plaid Cymru group.

“This is a neutral act, without prejudice, pending the conclusion of an investigation by the Senedd standards commissioner into an alleged breach of the code of conduct for members of the Senedd.”

Anne Milton has also accused Sir Gavin Williamson of behaving in an “unethical and immoral” way as chief whip.

Milton, who lost the Tory whip during the Brexit rows in 2019 and subsequently lost her seat, told Channel 4 News: “I got the impression that he loved salacious gossip, and would use it as leverage against MPs if the need arose.”

She also told the broadcaster that Williamson had an expletive-filled rant about civil servants in 2016 in response to a female official asking why a minister had to change travel plans for a vote.

“Always tell them to f*** off and if they have the bollocks to come and see me,” he said in an email, according to Ms Milton.

“F****** jumped up civil servants.”

Williamson accused of ‘threatening’ behaviour by former deputy chief whip

Anne Milton, the former deputy chief whip Anne Milton who worked closely with Sir Gavin Williamson when he was chief whip, has claimed he used “leverage” and threats to control MPs and instil a culture of fear in Westminster.

Milton told Channel 4 News of an alleged incident, when she says that the whips’ office gave some financial assistance to an MP: “I do remember him asking me to give the MP in question the cheque. And he waved it under my nose and said: ‘Make sure when you give him this cheque, he knows I now own him.’”

Milton said: “I don’t think it was a joke. It was the seriousness with which he said it. And I think that the bottom line is, if instances accord with your overall experience with somebody, then you believe them.”

She added that she gave the MP the cheque but didn’t pass on Williamson’s message.

Milton alleges Williamson behaved in an “unethical and immoral” and “shocking” manner during his time as chief whip between July 2016 and November 2017.

She also accused Williamson of using MPs’ mental and physical health problems as “leverage”.

Milton describes Williamson’s behaviour while chief whip as “threatening” and “intimidating”.

She added: “It’s an image he cultivates. I think he feels that he’s Francis Urquhart from House of Cards.”

“Make sure when you give him this cheque he knows that I now own him.”

Sir Gavin Williamson has been accused of issuing an inappropriate threat to an MP in financial trouble by former deputy chief whip Anne Milton, who used to work with him when he was chief whip. pic.twitter.com/bo8WTBkGmQ

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 8, 2022

Four Conservative MPs who were loyal to Boris Johnson and have been nominated for peerages have agreed to delay accepting them to avoid triggering byelections, writes Aletha Adu and Peter Walker.

Rishi Sunak is facing pressure to block the former PM’s “conveyor belt of cronies” after Johnson told Tory MPs to hold back on heading to the Lords until the end of the current parliament so the party doesn’t face a number of potentially difficult election challenges.

The ultra-loyal Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary; Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president; Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, and Nigel Adams are set to be on Johnson’s resignation list.

After it emerged that British immigration officers could be stationed in French control rooms for the first time under a new deal to curb Channel crossings, the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, hailed the “fundamental shift” in the tone of relations between Britain and France as officials thrashed out the final details of the deal.

He told Sky News: “The mood music seems to be good at the moment.

“My understanding is we’re in the final stages of what could be an agreement, which would be very good news.

“I think there has been a fundamental shift in the tone between ourselves and the French.”

The government said the fresh agreement between the UK and France, understood to be worth about £80m, is in its final stages.

An additional £5m of funding to tackle loss and damage has been announced by the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, at the Cop27 climate summit.

The funds take Scotland’s commitment to addressing loss and damage caused by the climate crisis to £7m and will enable communities to take direct action to address the impacts of loss and damage.

The government said this includes slow-onset effects such as sea level rise and non-economic effects including the loss of cultural identity.

It will also help to tackle existing inequalities, including gender inequalities, which are exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

Andrew Sparrow

Andrew Sparrow

The crisis at the Manston processing centre for refugees in Kent is not yet over, Dame Diana Johnson, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee has said.

In a statement released after her committee visited the centre today, Johnson, a Labour MP, said:

What the home affairs committee saw at Manston revealed that while overcrowding has reduced, and staff are making valiant efforts to improve conditions for detainees, the crisis is not over. We encountered families who had been sleeping on mats on the floor for weeks. Meanwhile there are ongoing questions about the legality of the home secretary’s decision to detain people at the site for longer than 24 hours.

The Home Office has been running to keep up with this escalating crisis, rather than warding it off at the outset through planning and preparation. The numbers of people crossing the Channel in small boats this year will not have been a surprise to the government, so why were adequate preparations not made? This question matters – because we may still see another major upsurge in the number of people arriving at Manston before the end of this year.

The home secretary needs to end this crisis once and for all. That requires dealing with the backlog in the asylum system and establishing a system that is efficient and fair.

That is all from me for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is now taking over.

Migrants at the Manston processing centre today.
Migrants at the Manston processing centre today. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, has criticised Rishi Sunak’s decision to give Sir Gavin Williamson ministerial responsibilities relating to communications and security.

According to the Cabinet Office, Williamson’s responsibilities will include the Government Communications Service and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). The CSSF is a cross-government initiative that funds projects that contribute to national security – normally peace-keeping operations abroad, in places where instability could pose a threat to other countries.

Rayner said:

Gavin Williamson has not only been given a vote of confidence by the prime minister but handed crucial national security and government communications responsibilities, despite having previously been sacked from cabinet of leaking details of a national security council meeting.

After a week of appalling allegations about intimidatory behaviour towards colleagues, the prime minister has rewarded Williamson by giving him authority over huge swathes of the civil service.

The fact Rishi Sunak appointed him and then promoted him shows a weak prime minister who puts party management before the national interest.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/nov/08/gavin-williamson-rishi-sunak-uk-politics-latest-live-news Gavin Williamson announces resignation but ‘refutes the characterisation’ of claims against him – UK politics live | Politics

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