Gavin Williamson accuses Whitehall chief of framing him for Huawei secrets leak
The sacked Defence Sec insists his enemy, Sir Mark Sedwill, stitched him up
GAVIN Williamson has accused Britain’s top civil servant of stitching him up by claiming he was the Huawei secrets leaker before the investigation into it even began.
The sacked former Defence Secretary has insisted his enemy, Sir Mark Sedwill, blamed him during a security meeting of senior civil servants on Wednesday last week, only a few hours after the furore exploded.
The Cabinet Secretary’s act was the latest in a long-running vendetta after the two men’s bitter feud over defence cuts, Mr Williamson insists.
And he also reported the accusation – allegedly relayed to him by “multiple sources” in the room - to No10.
The PM dramatically sacked the 42-year-old Tory MP and former close ally this week after a probe unearthed “compelling evidence” he briefed details from a National Security Council meeting to decide to allow Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to help build Britian’s 5G network.
But Mr Williamson, who is vigorously protesting his innocence, told friends last night: “I knew they were coming for me from the moment Mark Sedwill named me in that room.
“The leak inquiry was always going to try to frame me.”
We previously reported how the PM fired Mr Williamson, 42, after a probe unearthed “compelling evidence” he leaked confidential details about Huawei.
It followed a National Security Council meeting to allow the Chinese tech giant to help build Britain's 5G internet network.
Last night and wants to warn her away from the deal.
A senior US State Department official said that spelling out the risks was “imperative”.
As the latest scandal to rock Theresa May’s government engulfed Westminster for a second day;
- Labour chiefs united with some Tory MPs to demand a police probe is mounted to get to the bottom of what happened.
- Mr Williamson said he would personally welcome a criminal investigation as the only was to “clear” his name.
- Tory fury erupted with Mrs May for carrying out the dramatic public sacking on the eve of polling in yesterday’s local elections, dubbed by one senior MP as “an act of incalculable political stupidity”.
Sources close to Sir Mark Sedwill admitted he was “angry” with Mr Williamson for blaming civil servants for the leak, and the Cabinet Secretary did tell the Whitehall meeting that Mr Williamson had pointed the finger of blame at them.
But they also insisted it was “absolutely rubbish” to say that Sir Mark also fingered Mr Williamson himself during the session.
GAV'S CALL FOR POLICE PROBE
Mr Williamson even suggested on Thursday night that the journalist who broke the Huawei decision leak, the Daily Telegraph’s Steven Swinford, should have his notes seized by police.
The ex-defence supremo said: “The reporter’s notepad would show that I didn’t say anything”.
But Downing Street revealed Mrs May does not consider the Huawei secrets leak a criminal offence, and instead “considers the matter closed”.
Instead, No10 aides say the PM fired Mr Williamson because she lost all trust in him.
Mrs May’s official spokesman said: “This is not about what was leaked, it’s about where it was leaked from, and maintaining the integrity of the National Security Council”.
The Cabinet Secretary also “does not judge it necessary” to refer the internal Government investigation to the police.
And Met Commissioner Cressida Dick also ruled out any formal probe unless the Cabinet Office officially refers the leak inquiry to her.
New defence chief hails UK's nuke role
By Kate Ferguson, Westminster Correspondent
NEW DEFENCE Secretary Penny Mordaunt will today join forces with Prince William to pay tribute to Britain’s nuclear might.
The former SPLASH! star has made history by becoming the first woman ever appointed to lead the country’s military.
And in one of her first acts, she will today attend a service at Westminster Abbey to celebrate 50 years of Britain having a continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent.
It comes after Ms Mordaunt, 46, hailed Britain’s Armed Forces as the “best in the world” on her first day in her new job yesterday.
After a roller-coaster 24 hours which saw Gavin Williamson dramatically sacked over the Huawei leak, she gathered her new staff for a pep talk.
She said she was “delighted” to be back at the MoD, where she was previously a minister.
And she said Britain’s proud Armed Forces are a “prototype that other nations seek to emulate” around the world.
In a fleeting reference to the history her appointment has made, the Tory MP jokingly said she is keeping her other brief as women and equalities minister as “we can multitask”.
A Royal Navy Reservist who was named after the famed frigate HMS Penelope which served in the Falklands War, defence runs in Ms Mordaunt’s blood.
Her father was a paratrooper, and she represents the big naval constituency of Portsmouth North.
She has taken a portrait of Nelson – Britain’s greatest ever naval commander – from her old office at the Department for International Development with her to the MoD.
Lord West, the former head of the Navy, told The Sun: “I welcome the appointment. I think she will be jolly good.
Cabinet members 'should [...] shut up when they get outside'
David Lidington, PM's de facto deputy
The PM’s de facto deputy David Lidington defended her decision to MPs on Thursday, even going as far to suggest that Mr Williamson was such a liability that he no longer should be trusted with matters of war and peace.
Echoing Mr Williamson’s infamous comment that Russia should “go away and shut up”, Mr Lidington said Cabinet members “should speak with complete candour within the room, and shut up when they get outside”.
He added: “The PM would not have taken the decision that she did, were there not compelling evidence and no credible other explanation of what happened”.
The SNP raised the prospect of stripping Mr Williamson of his top CBE gong.
But Mr Lidington said the humiliating firing was punishment enough, and a government document carried by one of his aides was also photographed revealing there is no intention to strip the former minister of his honorary membership of the Privy Council either.
Mr Lidington told the Commons: “He has lost a job which he loved and to which he was utterly committed, and that should stand”.
The Sun Says: Come clean
THERE is a rancid smell around the sacking of Gavin Williamson that won’t go away.
The leak for which he was fired did not damage Britain. Quite the opposite. It exposed a blunder by the Prime Minister over Huawei that could cost us dear.
But Williamson was targeted within hours by Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, who convinced the PM her Defence Secretary was the mole. Well, that’s one less pro-Brexit voice they have to worry about in Cabinet.
The Sun holds no special brief for Williamson. His time at the MoD was mixed, though few can dispute his commitment to our troops. But if he is innocent, as he still claims, he has every right to be outraged. He wants the evidence made public... so do we.
And let’s see the same zeal applied by the Cabinet Office to uncovering how Sedwill’s own “confidential” Brexit warnings find their way into the Press.
Don’t get us wrong. The Sun likes a leak. It is laughable that anyone, journalists especially, wants Williamson prosecuted over Huawei.
The haste to sack him looks indecent, self-serving and hypocritical.
But if proof exists, let’s see it.
'KANGAROO COURT'
Backbench Tories lined up to call for Mr Williamson to be given the chance to clear his name.
Former minister Sir Desmond Swayne fumed: “Natural justice demands that the evidence be produced so that his reputation can be salvaged or utterly destroyed”.
Tory MP Peter Bone warned the Government against “rushing to judgement” because of the possibility that the “kangaroo court had made a mistake”.
On the announcement’s timing, a former Cabinet minister told The Sun: “It leaves me to conclude nobody in No10 has any political nous left at all”.
A senior Tory figure added: “Getting the vote out today is key for us, and stuff like this doesn’t help.
“The incompetence and lack of basic political nous in No10 now is extraordinary.”
The former independent reviewer of terror legislation Lord Carlile dubbed it “repugnant” to hear people swear on their children’s lives, as Mr Williamson has done to protest his innocence.
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The peer told BBC Radio 5 Live “It’s not a very attractive form of oath, and would rarely cut ice in a court, frankly”.
Gavin Williamson once “scrawled an obscenity” about the Prime Minister on a letter sent from Downing Street, it was claimed last night.
Historian Sir Max Hastings said that the Defence Secretary’s own staff were shocked by his “crass” behaviour.
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