The official Covid-19 inquiry has revealed more illuminating swear-laden texts between top ministers and Boris Johnson. The probe spent today cross-questioning Gavin Williamson, who served as Education Secretary during the height of the pandemic.
The inquiry revealed yet more furious tensions at the heart of government, as swear-laden texts were read out. It revealed that in February 2021 Mr Williamson accused the Prime Minister of having him “f***ed over” by decisions around school closures and the appointment of a new ‘catch-up tsar’. The text from Mr Williamson to Mr Johnson read: “PM, I always like to be polite in our conversations but I must confess to feeling a little hacked off.
“Not only do I get completely f***ed over by decisions on the 4th January that I took the s**t and abuse for I then get my legs cut from under me by an appointment that you don’t have the proper courtesy to discuss with me and get screwed over again.
“Must confess even less happy about that. I then get No10 leaking the story of the appointment and yet you guys don’t even have the basic level of competence to line up the appointments as the guy was going to turn it down because it hadn’t been sorted and then at that point I then have to be deployed to sort out No10’s cluster f**k.
He ominously concluded: “The last time I was treated like such an utter piece of s**t by No10 was in the 1st May 2019 and that didn’t work out well.”
His final sentence was a reference to his sacking by Theresa May over a claimed leak about plans to allow Chinese-owned Huawei access to help build the UK’s new 5G network.
He later played a key role in helping Boris Johnson oust Mrs May and then become Prime Minister.
Responding to the furious swear-laden text, Mr Williamson told the inquiry that it made clear his frustration with the way No10 was handling the pandemic.
“You had a number of times – if you take free school meals, where we’d given quite clear advice that we should continue to give free school meals through the holidays as you could see how that was the right thing to do by children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and you could also see the obvious political pitfalls that would occur as a result of not taking that advice.
“But despite all the advice No10 and Treasury felt that they knew better and we ended up in the reverse situation.
“On the 4th January I fundamentally so strongly believed it was the wrong decision of the government not to have all children back in schools… It could sometimes be frustrating where you think you have the position that’s landed on on the 4th January… but then suddenly by lunchtime to get a phone call to say ‘everything has changed’, it can sometimes be a little bit frustrating.”
Mr Williamson told the inquiry that mistakes were made in planning for the pandemic and said he wished he had done things differently.
He accused Mr Johnson of giving “a false sense of hope” over schools reopening in May 2020.