DOWNING Street officials have privately admitted that it is extremely hard to justify the “corrupt” knighthood awarded to former Tory minister Gavin Williamson.
Williamson, a former secretary of state for defence under Theresa May and education under Boris Johnson, was awarded the honour on Thursday amid public outcry.
Everyone from football pundit Gary Neville to Piers Morgan to Labour’s shadow education secretary criticised the knighthood, with Sam Freedman, a former special adviser at the Department for Education, saying: “I’ve been closely involved with education policy for almost 20 years and Williamson was the worst secretary of state by a long way.”
Williamson’s knighthood was reportedly due to be announced as part of the New Year’s list which also saw a controversial honour given to former prime minister Tony Blair.
READ MORE: Gavin Williamson panned for mixing up Marcus Rashford with England rugby player
However, the former education secretary’s knighthood was put on hold while Sue Gray probed a party held in his department while lockdown restrictions were in force. Once the Metropolitan Police decided not to pursue the event, the path for the knighthood became clear.
A Downing Street official told the Times that it would be difficult for anyone to justify the honour, especially given its purely political nature.
“The whole thing’s corrupt,” one Downing Street source told that paper, insisting there was no way back to government for Williamson under Johnson.
Others admitted that the war in Ukraine meant that public backlash against the award was likely to be muted while the focus was elsewhere.
The Financial Times reported that those in Johnson’s inner circle fear Williamson due to a “black book” of secrets which he collected during his time as Conservative chief whip. One source told the Times the knighthood was a way of “making sure he stays onside”.
Reports say Williamson is openly backing Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to take over as leader after Johnson.
The former education secretary presided over a scandal which saw an algorithm award better grades to children from private schools than their peers in more deprived areas.
The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, said Williamson had “unleashed chaos during the pandemic, left children to go hungry, stoked a toxic culture war on campus and attacked the working class with a mutant algorithm — all the honours in the world won’t change his record of disgrace”.
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