TIME TO GO AWAY AND SHUT UP... or take a foreign holiday
■ WILLIAMSON SACKED, RAAB GETS DEMOTED ■ TORIES’ STAR TRUSS MADE FOREIGN SEC
GAFFE-PRONE Gavin Williamson and ‘missing in action’ Dominic Raab have been booted out of their jobs as Boris Johnson re-launched his government with a stormy Cabinet reshuffle.
Education secretary Mr Williamson – branded childish for telling Russia to ‘go away and shut up’ after the 2018 Salisbury poisonings – was replaced by vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.
While foreign secretary Mr Raab – criticised for enjoying a summer holiday in Crete as the Taliban took Afghanistan leaving thousands of Britons stranded – was ousted for Liz Truss, hailed for her post-Brexit deals as trade secretary.
Demoted Mr Raab was reported to have ‘thrown his toys out of the pram’ in a tense meeting with the prime minister – before smiling for TV cameras in Westminster until out of view.
He was given three lesser roles – justice secretary, Lord Chancellor and the
‘face-saving’ job of deputy prime minister – a title last held by former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in the coalition government in 2015.
Shadow justice secretary David Lammy – his new rival – called him ‘a failed foreign secretary who was fired for being missing in action’.
And he said his appointment as the sixth justice secretary in six years ‘shows how little this government cares about victims of crime’.
Mr Williamson is said to have made his farewell speech to staff before the reshuffle was even confirmed.
He later tweeted that he was ‘ particularly proud’ of his record in charge of education – but managed to misspell Mr Johnson’s title, writing: ‘It has been a privilege to serve as education secretary since 2019. I look forward to continuing to support the prime minster (sic) and the government.’
The former fireplace salesman had been tipped for the axe after criticism of record A-level grade inflation during the pandemic, U-turns over daily testing in schools, free school meals and face masks and a series of howlers.
He was accused of sounding like a ‘toddler’ after saying Britain got Covid jabs first because ‘we’re a much better country than every single one of them’.
As defence secretary, he once suggested firing paintballs to stop Spanish ships trespassing in Gibraltar’s waters. When asked Vladimir Putin’s likely response to having 23 spies expelled from Britain after the novichok attack in Salisbury, he told a press conference: ‘Frankly Russia should go away and it should shut up.’
A year later in 2019 then-PM, Theresa May sacked him for allegedly leaking details of a National Security Council meeting about allowing Chinese company Huawei to help build the UK’s new 5G network – an accusation he denied. His final clanger came last week when he mixed up school meal-campaigning football star Marcus Rashford and rugby player Maro Itoje, in an interview.
Yesterday, shadow education secretary Kate Green said Mr Williamson had ‘failed children and young people, their parents and our hard working education staff throughout one of the most testing periods in our history’.
University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said he would be remembered for a ‘long list of failures’ as a ‘disastrous secretary of state who caused deep and lasting damage’.
Surprise reshuffle moves included former I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here contender Nadine Dorries becoming culture secretary, in place of Oliver Dowden.
Ms Dorries was briefly suspended by the Conservatives in 2012 for spending two weeks in Australia on the ITV show without informing party whips.
That year, she called then-PM David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne ‘two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others’. She is seen as a close ally of Mr Johnson and frequently defends him in the media. Mr Dowden became minister without portfolio and co-chair of his party, replacing Amanda Milling.
Robert Buckland was sacked as justice secretary to make way for Mr Raab, while Robert Jenrick was ditched as secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.
He was replaced by former Tory leadership contender Michael Gove, a day after the PM tasked him with ‘saving Christmas’ by ensuring food supplies over the festive period.
Mr Gove was also given responsibility for the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. His minister without portfolio role went to former chief secretary to the treasury Steve Barclay.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan replaced Liz Truss as trade secretary.
Rishi Sunak remained chancellor, and Priti Patel survived as home secretary, despite rumours that record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel this summer could cost her job.
No.10 yesterday denied the prime minister’s wife Carrie Symonds had any say in the reshuffle.