A senior official claims Gavin Williamson told them to “cut their throats” in what they believed was a sustained campaign of bullying while he was Defense Secretary.
The Ministry of Defense official told the Guardian that Williamson made the extraordinary remarks in front of other officials at a meeting, and on another occasion told them to “jump out of the window”.
The Whitehall aide, who worked closely with the cabinet minister, claimed Williamson “deliberately humiliated and intimidated” them on a regular basis.
They reported the behavior off the record to the Ministry of Defense’s head of human resources and took contemporaneous notes of the alleged incidents, but decided not to make a formal complaint against the minister at the time.
Williamson, who was defense secretary from November 2017 until May 2019, when he was fired after a National Security Council leak, was said to have “screamed and raged”.
The senior official, who later left the government, said the abuse was so serious that a senior military aide working in the department later apologized for not calling him out.
Williamson denied he harassed the official and said he had a good working relationship with his officials. However, The Guardian understands that he does not deny that he used those particular words.
In a statement, he said: “I strongly reject this allegation and have had good working relationships with the many brilliant officials I have worked with across government. No specific allegation has ever been made against me.”
The claims come after Downing Street said No 10 had “full confidence” in the Cabinet Office minister despite the emergence of allegations of bullying and abusive text messages he sent to the former boss Conservative Wendy Morton.
Speaking at the Cop27 summit in Egypt, Rishi Sunak said: “There is an independent complaints investigation going on and it’s right that we let that process run its course before passing judgement. I want to see the results , obviously, but I’ve been very clear that the language is not right, it’s not acceptable. And that’s why I appreciate the fact that Gavin Williamson has expressed regret for that and now we’ll see what the inquiry says.”
The latest allegation raises further questions for the prime minister about his political judgment after he decided to re-appoint Williamson, a close political ally who is seen to have played a key role in his leadership campaign, to the government despite aware of Morton’s complaint.
Text messages revealed over the weekend included angry protests at not being invited to the Queen’s funeral and one saying “everything has a price”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said on Monday that Sunak had a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, but had refused to fire Williamson, claiming she had a “significant contribution to make to government”.
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Meanwhile, the Times reported on Monday that an MP claimed Williamson, when he was chief whip in 2016, threatened her with potentially revealing details about his private life. The deputy was now a minister, according to the paper.
He told the paper that he called her into his office when he was campaigning on a politically sensitive issue and brought up something about her private life “which he interpreted as an unspoken threat”. Williamson’s unnamed allies said this had not been a threat and that he had raised the issue in a “pastoral capacity”.
‘I wasn’t right to send them,’ says Grant Shapps on Gavin Williamson’s abusive texts – video
Grant Shapps, the business secretary, said the messages should not have been sent, telling Sky News: “I don’t think it was the right thing to do, to send messages like that. I can see they should have been sent in a moment of frustration. I think in general it’s much better to write things you won’t regret later.”
Williamson was first sacked as Defense Secretary by Theresa May after it was alleged she leaked details of a national security council meeting, an allegation she has always denied; and later as education secretary for Boris Johnson over the Covid 19 A-levels debacle.
Labor and the Liberals have called on Sunak to sack Williamson, with Keir Starmer saying: “It’s so disappointing that we’re once again having a discussion about the Prime Minister’s trial, this time in relation to Gavin Williamson. He’s clearly got people around of the cabinet table that is not fit to be there.”