Scarborough and Whitby MP: Gavin Williamson "did the best he could"

Robert Goodwill has been defending the former Education Secretary

Author: Karen LiuPublished 16th Sep 2021

Scarborough's MP says sacked the Education Secretary did the best he could with the information he had at the time.

Gavin Williamson lost his position in government in the re-shuffle yesterday and was a controversial figure in announcements about exams and free school meals.

He COMES from Scarborough, whose MP is former Education MINISTER Robert Goodwill.

Robert said:

"You get lucky ministers and unlucky ministers and things that happened under Gavin's watch with the exams and the problems we've had with the school dinners for example, these are down to the pandemic. I think at the time Gavin made the decisions that he had to based on the best information available.

"I've always seen Gavin as a good friend and I always try to be loyal with my friends therefore I'm not going to enter into this slagging him off for what he did or didn't do. The fact is is that the Prime Minister has had him in a number of positions as did Mrs. Theresa May as did Mr. David Cameron so Gavin's had a very good career in a number of departments."

Gavin Williamson is being replaced by former Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi.

Robert added by doing that it does not mean any problems for the department he is leaving:

"The skills that you need as a minister are not just to do with the knowledge of what goes on in that particular sector but it's to do with the decisions you make based on the advice you're given by civil servants and experts.

"The infrastructure is in place for delivering large numbers of vaccines effectively. It's not like we need to reinvent the machine as the over 50s and vulnerable people get their third jab this autumn. Nobody's arguing that we don't have the capacity or the people.

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