Rishi Sunak is backing cabinet minister Gavin Williamson despite increasing pressure to sack him over threatening and abusive texts sent to a colleague. The Prime Minister is said to retain full confidence in him, Downing Street has said, despite increasing calls from opposition leaders to get rid him.
Mr Sunak is under fire for bringing the twice-sacked minister back into the fold when he had been warned the former education secretary was under investigation for allegedly bullying Wendy Morton, the former chief whip. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said Sir Gavin is “clearly not suitable” for the job, and claimed the PM was “weak” to appoint him to the Cabinet Office in the first place.
In the texts exposed over the weekend, Sir Gavin angrily accused Ms Morton of seeking to “punish” MPs like him who were out of favour with then-premier Liz Truss by excluding them from the Queen’s funeral. Former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry informed Mr Sunak on the day he took office that Ms Morton had lodged a formal complaint over the messages.
