PM HAD TO SEPARATE MINISTERS IN BUST-UP AT COMMONS
May steps in as Defence boss berates Chancellor over cuts .. . and Dad’s Army ‘Pike’ jibe
THERESA MAY was forced to intervene to stop a stand-up row between two warring Cabinet Ministers in the Commons, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The Prime Minister stepped in after Chancellor Philip Hammond and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson hurled abuse at each other as a simmering feud over defence cuts boiled over into a shouting match.
Witnesses reported the astonishing
sight of Mr Williamson and Mr Hammond going ‘toe to toe’ in the Commons last week, with Mr Williamson angrily accusing Mr Hammond of publicly insulting him over his handling of the MoD.
Mr Hammond defended himself, arguing he had done no such thing. At this point a horrified Mrs May, standing just feet away, stepped in to break up the row.
A well-placed source said: ‘She made it clear the two of them should grow up and calm down. After slugging it out toe to toe, they trudged off like naughty schoolboys.’
The extraordinary confrontation took place at 8pm on Wednesday during a key vote on Brexit legislation.
It was the culmination of an explosive rift between the two men, first revealed in this newspaper last weekend.
We reported how Mr Hammond’s allies had accused Mr Williamson, promoted to Defence Secretary last month, of deliberately stirring up a row over defence cuts.
Mr Williamson was said to be furious over the way one of Mr Hammond’s allies had compared him to the naive Dad’s Army character Private Pike. Within 24 hours, Mr Williamson retaliated by banning the Chancellor from taking the RAF aircraft reserved for official government and Royal business, claiming the Treasury had failed to pay the MoD a six-figure bill.
Then, on Wednesday, Mr Hammond struck back by saying that the Defence Secretary had yet to ‘get his head around’ his own budget.
Hours later, the two men came face-toface in the Commons when they voted on the EU Withdrawal Bill.
Within moments, a fierce argument had broken out, although there are conflicting accounts as to who started it.
According to one Tory MP, Mr Williamson was the aggressor. ‘Gavin went for Philip’s throat,’ said the MP. ‘All the pent-up anger came spilling out. Hammond looked taken aback, but then gave as good as he got. The PM could see it was all getting out of hand and broke it up.’
The confrontation came amid a growing rebellion by backbench Tory MPs over threatened cuts to the MoD budget, a dispute which the Treasury believes is being stirred up by Mr Williamson to boost his career and win the respect of the Armed Forces.
The Treasury is convinced that Mr Williamson – who was parachuted in to the Defence Secretary job last month when Sir Michael Fallon was forced out over a sex harassment scandal – is ‘ on manoeuvres’ to position himself for a run at party l eader when Theresa May steps down.
Since his appointment, he has made a series of eye- catching announcements including – in the past week alone – vowing to hunt down and kill British jihadis, and saving Army dogs from being put down.
Mr Williamson, 41, tried to drag a reluctant No 10 into his row with Mr Hammond last week by complaining to senior aides about ‘negative briefing’ from the Treasury following the backbench rebellion.
But it was the description of him resembling Pike, the ‘stupid boy’ in the BBC comedy, as he sat with seasoned officers, which really stung Mr Williamson.
His allies responded by telling The Mail on Sunday that Mr Ham- mond left the Forces in a ‘parlous state’ during his own time as Defence Secretary and would be held to account for it.
It was also claimed that Mr Hammond, 62, had told the Prime Minister that the Army needs as few as 50,000 troops, a cut of nearly 30,000, which was dismissed by the Treasury as ‘utterly untrue’.
Mr Williamson is due to hold talks with Mr Hammond before Christmas to thrash out how to fill a £2 billion hole in the MoD budget.
Mr Hammond told the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday: ‘There is no question of the defence budget being cut. The defence budget is being increased. I expect that once he has had a chance to understand the situation in the Ministry of Defence, and to get his head around the defence budget, the new Defence Secretary will be wanting to come and talk to me and he will find no one more sympa- thetic to the challenges of defence than me’. An ally of Mr Williamson said: ‘Gavin will just turn this to his advantage. Pike was the next generation after all – and at least he is still with us.’
The actor who played Pike, Ian Lavender, is one of just two Dad’s Army cast members still alive. The other is Frank Williams, 86, who played vicar Timothy Farthing.
Mr Williamson’s camp also liken the Chancellor to doom-mongering, penny-pinching undertaker Private Frazer in the BBC show, because Mr Hammond is always ‘downbeat’ about Brexit and the economy. Tory MPs say that Mr Williamson is ‘very active’ talking to MPs in the Commons tea rooms, which they interpret as a sign that he is preparing to mount a leadership bid.
Mr Hammond’s allies think that Mr Williamson cooked up the backbench rebellion over cuts in order to distract attention from the row over his fast-track promotion to the Cabinet. They believe he is exaggerating the financial pressures so that he can claim a ‘win’ if the cuts fail to materialise, and so boost his leadership hopes.
Downing Street, the Treasury and the MoD all declined to comment.
‘At least Private Pike is still with us’