Text messages showing former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson lambasting teaching unions during the pandemic prove that the Tory MP is a “strange man”, a fellow former education secretary has said.
Sir Gavin came under the heat yesterday as a leaked text exchange between him and former health secretary Matt Hancock showed the pair describing teachers as finding an “excuse” not to work during the Covid crisis.
In a WhatsApp exchange in October 2020, first reported by the Telegraph, Mr Hancock texted his colleague to say: “What a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are,” to which Sir Gavin replied: “I know they really really do just hate work.”
A fellow former education secretary, who asked not to be named, told i: “The messages just show that Gavin is a strange man, as he’s demonstrated a number of times.”
Sir Gavin faced heavy criticism for his handling of the Covid crisis in schools, including a fiasco surrounding school exams and a series of U-turns over the Government’s free school meal policy.
