Gavin Williamson

So finally, Gavin Williamson is out. the only mystery is why he was in in the first place. As a minister, he has a track record of incompetence, suggesting Russia should “go away and shut up”, and making a total mess of the exam results. As a member of cabinet, he’s a serious security risk - which is why May sacked him. And we now learn there was a further leak when he was at Defence, which Penny Mordaunt had to sort out.

Why, then, does rational Rishi, the new broom who will bring us sensible government as an antidote to the Truss fiasco, feel he has to give this fool a ministry, even if it is one without portfolio? It can only be because he’s a bully, he twists arms, he frightens people into doing what he wants. And even that is done with a childish vanity - the tarantula, the whip on the desk - as if he’s auditioning for a Bond movie. It’s a sad indictment of the Sunak leadership that there was nobody around to warn him that appointing Williamson to anything would be something he’d be certain to regret.