The Gavs and Gav-nots: how the Tories are still divided

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The New Statesman

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🗓️ 10 November 2022

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

Gavin Williamson has resigned from the cabinet as minister without portfolio after a string of bullying allegations, including expletive-laden texts to a female colleague. It’s not the first time he has lost a government job: he was sacked twice before, under Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Anoosh Chakelian, Rachel Wearmouth, Freddie Hayward and Emma Haslett discuss the scandal and controversies that pepper Williamson’s career, and what his resignation tells us about the Rishi Sunak leadership and the way Westminster works. Plus, the moves Keir Starmer had made to put Labour on an election footing.

Then in You Ask Us, a listener asks to what extent George Osborne’s post-2010 period of austerity has led UK politics to where it is now.

If you have a question for You Ask Us, go to newstatesman.com/youaskus

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Enouche. I'm Freddie. I'm Rachel. And I'm Emma. And on today's episode of the New
0:14.1	Statesman podcast, we discuss Gavin Williamson's resignation and you ask us, what will a second
0:20.2	period of austerity bring? Since we last recorded Gavin Williamson, who was the sort of whip,
0:29.9	of Rishi Sunak's leadership campaign and elevated to Minister Without Portfolio and his cabinet,
0:34.7	he's resigned from cabinet over bullying allegations. Labour's saying this brings Rishi Sunak's
0:40.2	judgement into question because he was aware of a complaint against him when he appointed him.
0:45.6	And also, let's not forget Williamson's past, he was sacked by Theresa May after she accused him
0:49.6	of leaking from a national security briefing when he was defense secretary. And he was fired in
0:54.1	Boris Johnson's reshuffle last September as education secretary after messing up the exact
1:00.2	algorithm during the pandemic and various other failings. Is this another sign of Sunak's weakness,
1:06.7	Freddie? Yeah, completely. I think that's the main takeaway from it is that Sunak was supposed to
1:11.6	be this clean break from the divisiveness and the weakness of trust and Johnson, but he's not
1:16.3	been able to do that. In part because he inherited all of those divisions that already existed.
1:20.9	And Gavin Williamson was there to try and manage those things to try and ensure he get
1:25.7	bills through the House of Commons. And the fact that he had this bad history and he's still
1:30.1	like to bring him into the cabinet just speaks to the fact that Rishi Sunak was much weaker than
1:34.4	many people thought. So it's a bit like a Suella Bravaman situation, he felt like he had to have
1:38.7	her in for different reasons, but still political expediency. Completely, Bravaman was there in
1:43.6	part as a figurehead for the right of the party. He needed the support of her supporters
1:49.2	in the leadership campaign. And that's part of the reason that she stayed on as or was brought
1:53.3	back in the same secretary, even though she leaked or shared those sensitive documents six days
1:58.7	before joining a Rishi Sunak's cabinet. Right. Okay. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because I think
	...

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