Rumours swirl about potential future Gavin Williamson replacements as education secretary
Rumours are swirling that education secretary Gavin Williamson is set to be sacked at the next reshuffle, with two potential replacements touted.
Treasury minister Kemi Badenoch and vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi have both been tipped in the past 24 hours of being chosen to replace Williamson, after the former chief whip struggled through a series of crises over the past 18 months.
Multiple media outlets have reported that Boris Johnson is looking to sack Williamson at the next reshuffle, which is expected to be in winter.
Williamson was heavily criticised for last year’s A-levels fiasco, which initially saw pupils from poorer areas downgraded after an algorithm estimated exam scores.
The government was forced to quickly U-turn and allowed pupils to be awarded grades based on teachers’ assessments.
The Times reported today that Badenoch, a former London Assembly member, was in line to replace Williamson after impressing in Rishi Sunak’s Treasury team.
She has also won plaudits from some wings of the Tory party for her attacks against “woke” culture and critical race theory.
Douglas Smith, a Tory party heavyweight and husband to a senior Johnson adviser, is said to be pushing Badenoch forward as a future cabinet minister.
The Telegraph, meanwhile, reports Zahawi is likely to get promoted after overseeing the successful vaccines rollout.
Williamson ran Johnson’s 2019 Tory leadership campaign and served as a chief whip under Theresa May.
An MP told The Times: “He is wetting himself about getting the sack. He keeps telling people he knows where the bodies are and [the] PM is too weak to sack him.”