Sir Gavin Williamson will face an inquiry over alleged ‘abusive and threatening’ messages sent following the Queen’s funeral.
The Cabinet Office minister directed the texts to then Tory chief whip Wendy Morton.
Sir Gavin reportedly accused her of using the death of the monarch to ‘punish’ senior MPs who were out of favour with Liz Truss’s government.
The exchange of messages, obtained by The Sunday Times, concluded with him saying: ‘Well let’s see how many more times you f*** us all over. There is a price for everything.’
The Conservative Party chairman at the time, Sir Jake Berry, informed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak regarding the issue the day before he entered No 10, the paper reports.
Both Sir Jake and Ms Morton lost their jobs in an ensuing reshuffle while Sir Gavin – a former chief whip and a supporter of Mr Sunak – returned to government.
In the messages, he had complained it was ‘very poor’ that privy councillors – senior politicians who formally advise the monarch – who ‘aren’t favoured’ were excluded from the funeral at Westminster Abbey.
Ms Morton repeatedly insisted that his claims were unfounded and that the Government had been allocated an ‘extremely limited’ number of tickets, most of which went to members of the Cabinet.
According to the Times, Sir Gavin then retorted: ‘Well certainly looks it which think is very s**t and perception becomes reality. Also don’t forget I know how this works so don’t puss (sic) me about.
‘It’s very clear how you are going to treat a number of us which is very stupid and you are showing f*** all interest in pulling things together.
‘Also this shows exactly how you have rigged it is is (sic) disgusting you are using her death to punish people who are just supportive, absolutely disgusting.”
‘Well let’s see how many more times you f*** us all over. There is a price for everything.’
When contacted, Sir Gavin told The Sunday Times: ‘I of course regret getting frustrated about the way colleagues and I felt we were being treated.
‘I am happy to speak with Wendy and I hope to work positively with her in the future as I have in the past.’
Sir Jake informed the Sunday Times that he was informed on October 24 that a complaint had been made against Sir Gavin regarding allegations of ‘bullying and intimidation of parliamentary colleagues’.
‘In compliance with protocol, in my capacity as party chairman, I informed both the new Prime Minister and his incoming chief of staff about the complaint on the same day,’ Sir Jake said.
Sir Gavin has a controversial history within the party. He was made a privy councillor and awarded a knighthood by Boris Johnson during the latter’s tenure as Prime Minister.
But the South Staffordshire MP had previously been sacked by Theresa May as defence secretary for leaking details of a national security council meeting.
He would go onto suffer the same fate under Mr Johnson, when he was dumped as education secretary over the Covid-19 A-levels debacle.
Commenting on Sir Gavin’s most recent scandal, a Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘The Conservative Party has a robust complaints process in place.
‘This process is rightly a confidential one, so that complainants can come forward in confidence.’
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