Friday, March 04, 2022
Is Johnson shoring up his support with honours?
There is universal outrage this morning that Boris Johnson has given the former education secretary, Gavin Williamson, a knighthood.
The Independent reports that the honour comes six months after Williamson was sacked as education secretary by Johnson in the wake of the fiasco surrounding school exams during the Covid pandemic and a series of U-turns over free school meal policy when he was shamed by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.
Williamson had previously been sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May in 2019 after being blamed for a leak from the National Security Council. Unfortunately, No 10 was not immediately able to provide details of the citation explaining the reason for the award to the South Staffordshire MP, although the paper understands that the honour was a political award:
News of the knighthood was greeted with outrage by some at Westminster, with Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson saying it showed “utter contempt” for schoolchildren subjected to exam chaos and denied school meals during lockdown.
Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson described it as “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds”.
Ms Phillipson 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.
“Boris Johnson is proving again it’s one rule for him and his mates and another for the rest of us.
“This shows utter contempt for the challenges children and education staff have faced during the pandemic.”
And Ms Wilson 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. It is an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds. It shows this government only cares about those at the top.”
Labour shadow cabinet member Peter Kyle said: “The man who, as defence secretary, told Russia to ‘shut up and go away’ is given a knighthood by Boris Johnson seven days after Russia illegally invades a sovereign European country.
“Our country is further humiliated with every day these people remain in power.”
And Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi said: “Gavin Williamson getting a knighthood. Presumably it’s for services to failure in managing two sets of exam results?”
The Prime Minister really is pulling out all the stops to shore up his support within the Conservative Parliamentary Party.
The Independent reports that the honour comes six months after Williamson was sacked as education secretary by Johnson in the wake of the fiasco surrounding school exams during the Covid pandemic and a series of U-turns over free school meal policy when he was shamed by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.
Williamson had previously been sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May in 2019 after being blamed for a leak from the National Security Council. Unfortunately, No 10 was not immediately able to provide details of the citation explaining the reason for the award to the South Staffordshire MP, although the paper understands that the honour was a political award:
News of the knighthood was greeted with outrage by some at Westminster, with Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson saying it showed “utter contempt” for schoolchildren subjected to exam chaos and denied school meals during lockdown.
Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson described it as “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds”.
Ms Phillipson 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.
“Boris Johnson is proving again it’s one rule for him and his mates and another for the rest of us.
“This shows utter contempt for the challenges children and education staff have faced during the pandemic.”
And Ms Wilson 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. It is an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds. It shows this government only cares about those at the top.”
Labour shadow cabinet member Peter Kyle said: “The man who, as defence secretary, told Russia to ‘shut up and go away’ is given a knighthood by Boris Johnson seven days after Russia illegally invades a sovereign European country.
“Our country is further humiliated with every day these people remain in power.”
And Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi said: “Gavin Williamson getting a knighthood. Presumably it’s for services to failure in managing two sets of exam results?”
The Prime Minister really is pulling out all the stops to shore up his support within the Conservative Parliamentary Party.
