A FORMER Cabinet minister has dismissed the Gavin Williamson text row as something that could be sorted “over a cup of tea.”
George Eustice defended the Cabinet Office minister, saying “there are times when MPs, ministers, advisers, will get to the end of their tether due to the frustrations of the job.”
Former Cabinet minister George Eustice has dismissed the Gavin Williamson (pictured) text row as something that could be sorted ‘over a cup of tea’
But Rishi Sunak has branded the language used in aggressive texts from Williamson to the then Chief Whip Wendy Morton as “unacceptable”.
Mr Eustice told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that the correspondence was “unusual”.
He added: “Probably this would have been something better just sorted out over a cup of tea between the chief whip and Gavin Williamson at the time, rather than set down in text messages and then referred to some kind of panel.”
In a series of 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 said he informed Mr Sunak on the day he took the reins as Tory leader that Ms Morton had lodged a formal complaint over the messages.
But the PM went ahead with the appointment anyway the next day, with Downing Street citing his belief that Sir Gavin would make an “important contribution” to Government.
The Prime Minister has said the texts were not “not acceptable or right”, while Cabinet minister Grant Shapps earlier echoed this sentiment – describing the correspondence as “completely inappropriate”.
But last night Downing Street insisted that the PM still had “full confidence” in Mr Williamson, after the PM himself refused to say he would keep his job when quizzed by Trending In The News.
