RATTLED TEZ SENDS FOR SPIDERMAN
Defence boss has tarantula by desk
PRIME Minister Theresa May has called on “spiderman” Gavin Williamson to save her embattled Defence ministry.
Shamed former Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon quit after being caught up in a growing Westminster sex scandal.
He is braced for more sex revelations. So Mrs May asked her Chief Whip to bail out the Defence department.
Mr Williamson is known for keeping his pet tarantula Cronus in a glass tank by his desk. He is a feared politician who has been keeping the struggling party in check despite bitter in-fighting.
Sir Michael quit after admitting touching journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer’s knee 15 years ago.
Julia, who has played down her run-in with the Tory bigwig, said she believes there are more claims to come about his behaviour.
She said: “He’s made it very clear to me that he does not hold me responsible, which suggests that there is something else.
“All the people I’ve spoken to in and around the Conservative party and Downing Street seem to make clear that they expect other allegations to surface.”
Parliament has been rocked in the past week by a “dirty dossier” featuring claims against 36 Tory MPs. First Secretary Damian Green is being investigated over claims, he denies, that he told a Tory activist he “admired” her in a corset.
There were worries in Tory ranks last night, with some backbenchers suggesting that South Staffordshire MP Mr Williamson, 41, lacked experience.
One said some of the party’s MPs were in “head-inhands despair” at the “bizarre” appointment.
Meanwhile Labour’s Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins, 76, was last night suspended from the party after claims of sexual harassment emerged.