Pressure on defence chief over new claims about his of f ice ‘f ling’
THE Defence Secretary left his job at a fireplace company after the married woman he had a fling with reported it to her manager, it was claimed last night.
Gavin Williamson told the Mail last week how he had betrayed his wife by having an office romance with the junior employee in 2004 and left his job as managing director of Elgin and Hall ‘almost immediately’ and on ‘amicable terms’.
The issue came to a head in the summer of 2004 when the woman told her direct line manager about her working relationship with Mr Williamson, according to The Guardian. The father of two has insisted the romance never went beyond sharing a couple of kisses.
A meeting was held to discuss the problem with senior executives from parent company Aga Foodservice Group and Mr Williamson then left the company, it was claimed. In his account, Mr Williamson had given the impression he made the decision to leave himself. He said after confessing the office fling to his wife Joanne, ‘going back to work afterwards it could never feel the same as every day would remind me that I had let down the person I love more than anything.’
The fresh claims raise questions about Mr Williamson’s version of events and senior Tories are warning he will be ‘toast’ if his story unravels. However Mr Williamson, who succeeded Sir Michael Fallon last November after he resigned over sexual harassment claims, remained defiant yesterday.
Mr Williamson has been urged to explain whether he was subject to an internal disciplinary process and received a pay-off and why he kept the job at the Yorkshirebased firm off his official and social media profiles.
No 10 has stood by the former chief whip, who is a close ally of Theresa May and seen as a possible future leadership contender. But one senior minister said last night: ‘If the account he gave last week turns out to be inaccurate then he is in deep trouble.
‘Given he knifed Michael Fallon to get his job he is not exactly popular with colleagues as it is. If it turns out there are holes in his story then he is toast.’
Reports over the weekend claimed he had ‘bombarded’ his former work colleague with flowers while he pursued a relationship with her.
An ex-employee said: ‘He was very ambitious, very thrusting. He was brought into the firm aged only 28. He had the hots for this woman and regularly sent her flowers. He had a big Jaguar which he got other people to drive while he sat there waxing lyrical about the Tory party.’
Another claimed the woman was seen in tears having reported an ‘incident’ to her manager and there were questions as to whether he faced disciplinary procedures before leaving the firm.
A former manager, who also spoke anonymously, recalled: ‘I came to work one day and saw the woman going into the operation manager’s office. She was very upset and her colleagues were comforting her. She was very tearful and was in there a long time.
‘It was obvious something very stressful was going on.’
The colleague described the junior staff member, said to have been promoted after Mr Williamson left, as ‘a very honest girl’.
However, friends last night flatly denied he had sent the woman flowers or that he had faced disciplinary proceedings. An ally said
My family means everything to me. I almost threw it away From last Friday’s Mail
he was confident he had given an accurate account of what took place last week. ‘He knew there would be scrutiny,’ the friend said. ‘He’s not stupid.’
Until now the woman involved has remained out of the public eye and declined opportunities to comment. Although the brand name still exists, the Yorkshire operation of Elgin and Hall ceased trading in 2006 – two years after Mr Williamson left the company. Several former directors, who know the woman’s identity and are aware of what happened, have refused to comment on Mr Williamson’s departure.
The 41-year-old, who has two daughters, told the Mail how he almost ‘threw away’ his marriage in his late 20s. He said: ‘I had a good relationship with everyone I worked with, but with one person this started to develop into something more.
‘We had to travel together and spent a lot of time in each other’s company, the relationship became flirtatious and a couple of times we shared a kiss.
‘It never went further than that, but this had a profound impact on us both and those close to us.
‘It was a dreadful mistake and stopped as suddenly as it had started. I know that this caused problems for her, as it did for me.
‘And having to explain to Joanne what had happened was one of the most difficult conversations of my life. I’ll never truly understand how she found it in her heart to forgive me.’
Mr Williamson declined to comment on the latest claims.