‘This is wet wipe territory!’ Jacob Rees-Mogg gives damning assessment of Gavin Williamson’s bullying apology

Sir Gavin issued the apology after he was not allocated tickets to the late Queen’s funeral.

Parliament’s watchdog deemed his behaviour, which saw him send a series of expletive-laden messages to Morton, “offensive and intimidating”.

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His behaviour resulted in his departure from his post as Cabinet Office minister just days after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister.

“Gavin Williamson’s messages were rude and unhelpful”, said Rees-Mogg.

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“He’s accepted that, which he basically has to. But this seems to me to be the most ridiculous idea in its fundamentals.

“Wendy Morton was the chief whip, she is the one who has power in Parliament.

“The chief whip has patronage and power. The person who doesn’t is the person talking to them.

“If that person is rude to the chief whip, the chief whip, as the person in authority, has to be able to cope with it.”

A report by the Independent Expert Panel (IEP) found Sir Gavin’s conduct was “an abuse of power, finding that it had gone beyond vigorous complaint or political disagreement to a threat to lever his power and authority as a former chief whip to undermine Ms Morton personally”.

The IEP said it had “considered carefully” whether he should face suspension from the Commons, but had instead decided a “full and unreserved apology” was required.

Its report said Sir Gavin sent Morton text messages after he did not receive an invitation to the late Queen’s funeral, which he attributed to his having not supported then-prime minister Liz Truss in the recent leadership election.

The exchange concluded with him saying: “Well, let’s see how many more times you f*** us all over. There is a price for everything.”

Rees-Mogg added that while Williamson’s behaviour “wasn’t great”, the complaint should have been dismissed.

He said: “Gavin has accepted it, he’s apologised, but I think this is fundamentally wet wipe territory.”

Morton said she was “just relieved” after the apology in the wake of the watchdog’s findings.

“It’s taken about a year and I know why, it takes a long time, it can be a long process and it has to be gone through. But it has felt at times like a roller coaster,” she told Times Radio.