Boris Johnson has awarded a knighthood to Gavin Williamson, despite a ministerial record that includes the Covid exams debacle as education secretary and being sacked as defence secretary for allegedly leaking secure information.
The news prompted anger from opposition parties, with Labour calling Williamson’s record “disgraceful”. The Liberal Democrats called the knighthood “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds”.
The head of a leading teaching union said many parents would “share our surprise” at the news.
A knighthood for Williamson had long been predicted, in part because of his loyalty to the prime minister. Williamson ran Johnson’s successful 2019 campaign to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader.
Williamson, the MP for South Staffordshire since 2010, served as chief whip under May, giving him significant insider knowledge of the operations of the parliamentary party – prompting speculation that a knighthood might keep him loyal.
May promoted him from chief whip to defence secretary in November 2017, where one of his most memorable moments in the job was suggesting Russia should “go away and shut up”.
Just over a year later, May sacked Williamson, saying she had seen “compelling” evidence that he leaked information from a meeting of the national security council about the involvement of the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei in the UK’s 5G network. Williamson conceded he had talked to the media, but denied discussing the meeting.
He was rewarded for his loyalty to Johnson by being made education secretary two months later, but was derided by unions and opposition parties as the worst occupant of the role in recent memory.
The nadir came when he oversaw the organisation of a new way to grade A-level students who had been denied exams during Covid in 2020. The eventual system, a mix of computer algorithm and teacher assessments, created obviously unfair marks, which Williamson initially defended, only to make a U-turn 48 hours later.
He was criticised for what opposition parties and unions labelled as wider failures over Covid, including a lack of support with home schooling for children from deprived backgrounds, and confused messaging over the return to schools.
He also faced criticism over the refusal to extend into the holidays food vouchers for poorer children amid lockdown, and then free school meals. The decisions were both reversed after pressure from the footballer and campaigner Marcus Rashford.
Williamson was subsequently labelled the most ignorant education secretary in the UK’s history after telling a newspaper he had discussed the free school meals issue with Rashford, having confused him with the England rugby player Maro Itoje, who is also black.
He was sacked from the education job in a cabinet reshuffle in September, returning to the backbenches.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Gavin Williamson left children to go hungry, created two years of complete chaos over exams and failed to get laptops out to kids struggling to learn during lockdowns. His record is astonishing and disgraceful.”
Munira Wilson, the Lib Dems’ education spokesperson, said: “The only award Gavin Williamson should be given is the one for worst education secretary in history. “He failed to get laptops to children who needed them, sleepwalked into the exam crisis and caused chaos for parents and teachers over getting children back to school. People across the country will be outraged at this reward for his abysmal failures.”
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it had to be recognised that Covid created very real challenges. “But the experience of schools and colleges of Mr Williamson during his tenure as education secretary was one of endless muddle, inevitable U-turns, and even threats of legal action to override local decisions,” he said.
“This was not all Williamson’s fault. The hand of Downing Street was detectable amidst the chaos too. However, many parents will share our surprise that his record in this role warrants the conferring of a knighthood.”
