Lawyers for Gavin Williamson have refused to answer questions from the Guardian over his departure from the firm [Image: Vianney Le Caer/Rex/Shutterstock].

The timing couldn’t be worse, as a Tory employee in Scotland just got the sack for a sexual assault on a fellow worker in his own previous job. In light of this, Mr Williamson cannot afford any doubt over his own behaviour.

But that is exactly what he has created.

We are told that Mr Williamson attended a meeting to discuss his future at fireplace firm Elgin & Hall after a “flirtatious relationship” that he says amounted to a couple of kisses. It occurs to This Writer that, if those moments were consensual, it wasn’t a lot of the employer’s business.

If they weren’t, then a huge can of worms is open. That’s why the Guardian wants to know whether the woman involved in the affair reported Mr Williamson’s behaviour to her line manager, and the nature of the terms in which he left the company.

If there is anything dodgy about Mr Williamson’s past behaviour, then other Tories may feel justifiably aggrieved that he has been privy to the details of their own indiscretions.

Could he have gained high office by exploiting his knowledge of their behaviour – while hiding information about his own?

It’s an uncomfortable question – but one that Mrs May’s reticence forces us to ask.

Theresa May repeatedly declined to say she believed her defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, told her the truth about why he left a fireplace firm after a reported affair with a colleague.

Sources close to the company, which employed Williamson as a managing director, [said] he attended a meeting to discuss his future after colleagues became aware of his relationship with a junior member of staff.

The former chief whip, tipped as a possible prime minister, took the extraordinary step of giving an interview to the Daily Mail to talk about the “flirtatious relationship” he had with the woman when he was at Elgin & Hall, based in North Yorkshire.

Williamson told the Mail the fling “never went further” than sharing a kiss with the woman “a couple of times” and that it “stopped as suddenly as it had started”. It is understood he informed the Cabinet Office before deciding to speak to the newspaper.

Lawyers for Williamson have refused to answer questions … over whether the woman reported his behaviour to her line manager, the terms on which he departed and whether he received a payoff.

May, who was speaking to reporters during her trip to China, was asked whether she was confident Williamson had told her the whole truth about his departure from the firm. The prime minister declined to answer directly.

Source: Gavin Williamson: PM declines to back his account of ‘office affair’ | Politics | The Guardian

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