November 11th, 2022 / Leave Feedback / nezuppal
It seems nowadays that politicians can’t last longer than ten minutes in serious cabinet positions before a scandal breaks about them, or they fail, or they try to go on a Celebrity TV show. This time it was Gavin Williamson, a truly reprehensible and disgusting man.
Having faced claims of bullying before this was Gav’s third attempt to be a decent human being and a member of the Cabinet. It lasted 72 hours. It was only two weeks ago that he was appointed as Cabinet Office Minister by Rishi Sunak. The only explanation I can possibly think of for appointing such an evil man to the role is desperation; the Tories are running very low on credible ministers. So, they are now resorting to appointing bullies to keep their party in check. What a disgrace.
Bullying in the workplace is common. People don’t like to admit, people don’t like to talk about it and people are often told to “shut up” and “move on”. I have experienced bullying in the workplace, though not to this extent, and it is truly demoralising and shatters ones’ confidence.
One allegations of abusive text messages sent to Wendy Morton emerged it was clear that this man was not only unfit for cabinet, but he was also unfit for any public role and I can only say that I hope to never hear his name again. Whilst I am no fan of Wendy Morton, the Chief Whip of the House of Commons, the bullying against her was unacceptable. It is as simple as that.
The sheer arrogance of the man. Whilst the entire country was in shock and mourning the death of The Queen, this narcissist was waiting for an invite to the funeral. That was his main concern. There are a few issues with this. Firstly, there are only a certain number of MPs who could attend. At the end of the day, a lot of MPs did not get an invitation. A lot of cabinet members did not attend. But they understood that there is a limit on the number of people who were allowed to attend.
But this was simply not good enough for “Sir” (imagine) Gavin Williamson. As soon as he found out about the death of The Queen, he immediately texted Morton and asked why he was not able to attend. It was explained, several times, why he could not attend. But he continued to harass, swear and bully Wendy Morton. In one of the exchanges, he said “Well, let’s see how many more times you f*** us all over. There is a price for everything!” Is that a threat? If this was in a movie, and sometimes I feel like British politics has turned into some sort of sick horror film, then I would say it was.
The party chairman, Sir Jake Berry, informed Rishi Sunak the day before he entered 10 Downing Street that Ms Morton had launched an official complaint against Gavin. Both Sir Jake Berry and Ms Morton lost their jobs in the cabinet re-shuffle, instigated by Sunak, whilst Gavin was allowed to return to government.
Sir Jake told the paper that he was informed by the Conservative Party chief executive on October 24 that a complaint had been made against Sir Gavin regarding allegations of “bullying and intimidation of parliamentary colleagues”. Rishi Sunak may not have known about the exact details of the text messages, but he was certainly aware of this man’s historic record of bullying colleagues into submission. An abusive man, he has a despicable record. Even when compared to other members of the Tory party.
He was first sacked by Theresa May, when he was serving as defence secretary, for leaking details of a national security meeting. He was then later sacked by Boris Johnson, when he was serving as Education Secretary, for the A-levels disaster. Is this man evil or incompetent? The Tory party can usually tolerate one, but not both.
As the scandal began to break, a simultaneous historic research report into Westminster bullying concluded that bullying was something commonplace within cabinet and within the entire civil service. The report especially highlighted bullying against women. If this were a man bullying another man, would it have received the same attention? I cannot say for certain, but in my mind that is missing the point.
After his initial appointment, despite the fact Rishi new he was a bully, he was still defended by the Prime Minister. And, rather obviously, other cabinet officials followed suit. They said that Gavin acted “in the heat of the moment” and that it was a “one off”, something which they should all put behind them. But they weren’t the ones that were bullied? And how does that make any sense at all? These text messages, which got slowly more aggressive, took place over the course of two days. It wasn’t “in the heat of the moment”, not that is any defence at all in my opinion. A despicable man with a despicable record sending despicable texts to a colleague. A one off? Come off it.
Workplace bullying is systemic and it comes from the top down. If leaders don’t set an example and take a hard-line, anti-bullying stance they are rubbish leaders. It is as simple as that. Whether you are the manager of a small start-up company or, and I can’t believe I’m even writing this, the Prime Minister the example you set is followed by those who follow you.
Apparently, Sir Gavin told The Sunday Times: “I of course regret getting frustrated about the way colleagues and I felt we were being treated. I am happy to speak with Wendy and I hope to work positively with her in the future as I have in the past.” He doesn’t regret get frustrated. He regrets getting caught. And he wasn’t even getting frustrated, he was intimidating and bullying a colleague. He’s happy to speak with Ms Morton? This story broke a while ago and, at the time of writing, he has still refused to apologise to Ms Morton for his disgusting behaviour.
He now faces a direct inquiry into his behaviour, both in the past and in this particular circumstance. But the inquiry will not produce anything that we don’t already know. And it will not change the way “men” like this behave.
It was only on the 8th of November, the time at which I am writing this article, that he has finally resigned. He claims that that he did not want his concerning behaviour to become a “distraction.” To be honest, Rishi Sunak probably welcomed the distraction, but his reaction to it has not only been thoroughly disappointing but demonstrates to me an inexplicable level of weakness. A man who claims that politics should be all about integrity and respect does not instantly suspend or fire this abusive bully, but rather he sits and waits. He makes claims that he knew of no such “texts”. But again, this is missing the point. The texts were just the lightning rod; highlighting the bullying which goes on in Parliament, not just within the Tory party I might add.
I never expected much from Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister. When he was first chosen as Chancellor, I think there was a lot of hope and expectation as he seemed like a genuinely nice person. We all drank the cool aid, let’s be honest. But like many leaders before him, and probably many to follow, he quickly showed his true colours by refusing to shut this down immediately. It was only after the scandal broke, the public outrage and the demands from within his own party to take action that he finally urged Gavin to resign. He didn’t even sack him. He hasn’t come out and said how unacceptable his behaviour was. He has been weak.
As for Gavin Williamson. I don’t think we’ll be hearing from him again soon. I hope. Although with the pace at which politics is moving in the UK, I imagine he may well be Prime Minister by the time I post this article.
There hasn’t been an apology. Only distractions with the COP-27 and with Ukraine taking the headlines. Cost-of-living crises and massive inflation have also re-taken the headlines. The bullying saga has nearly been forgotten by everyone. It lasted two weeks and will obviously be repeated. Though “men” like Gavin will just be more careful next time.
Rishi has come out and said now that he “regrets” his “mistake”. The mistake was electing this shambles of a government. The regrets are ours.
In the words of the great, irreplaceable Denzel Washington: “This was an abusive man, so not a real man at all.”
Ignorantly Ignorant 