Don’t panic, PM! ‘Private Pike’ is on manoeuvres

Even before Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson’s bizarre new threat to bring down the Government unless he secures more money for the military, it was obvious he was on leadership manoeuvres.

Last week, for instance, there was the revelation that Theresa May at a private meeting had ordered Williamson — nicknamed Private Pike after the dithering drip in the comedy classic Dad’s Army — to justify whether Britain should continue as a ‘top tier’ power alongside the U.S., Russia, China and France.

Downing Street is convinced Williamson, whose ambition might exceed his ability, was behind the report. Only last month, no 10 expressed private irritation after it was leaked that Williamson was objecting to an historical murders unit being set up in northern Ireland.

Williamson was thought to be the author of the leak, knowing most Tory MPs share his opposition to soldiers who fought in the Troubles being prosecuted while there’s an amnesty for terrorists.

In January, there was disbelief when Williamson alleged that Russia could kill ‘thousands and thousands and thousands’ of British citizens in a cyber-attack. Security chiefs accused Williamson of using secrets provided by American spies, which he denied.

The row over the cyber attacks conveniently surfaced on the day Williamson, a married man, admitted to a ‘flirtatious relationship’ with a former colleague while working for a fireplace manufacturing firm in Yorkshire in 2004.

Worse, his suggestion that Russia should ‘go away and shut up’ after the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury made him sound like a petulant schoolboy.

But his apparent threat to May over the defence budget is a leak too far. My ministerial mole says: ‘He’s inexperienced and out of his depth. He’ll be out of a job, too, if this goes on.’