Daily Mail: The 11 minute 'smoking gun' phone call: Gavin Williamson admits he spoke to journalist after security council meeting but denies he spoke about Huawei and swears 'on my children's lives that I'm innocent'
* The PM sacked Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary following a leak of secret information last week
* Is alleged he revealed National Security Council discussions about Huawei's involvement in UK's 5G network
* He has 'strenuously' denied being involved in the leak, despite claims of 'compelling evidence' against him
* Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said it was a 'shame she didn't recognise' how he had kept her as the PM in past
* Williamson also suggests that Mrs May's investigator Sir Mark Sedwill was settling a vendetta against him
* Growing calls were made for him to face police action, including from Labour deputy leader Tom Watson
Theresa May sacked Gavin Williamson over the Huawei leak after his 11-minute call to a journalist was uncovered by her civil service enforcer, it was revealed today.
Sir Mark Sedwill pored over the Defence Secretary's phone records and found he had spoken to Daily Telegraph reporter Steven Swinford on the day of National Security Council discussions about Huawei's potential access to the UK's 5G network.
Mrs May fired him last night claiming there was 'compelling evidence' he was responsible for the leak - but Mr Williamson claims he spoke to Swinford about the Tory leadership and Brexit and said the PM had 'just sacked someone who is not guilty', adding: 'I swear on my children's lives that I'm innocent.'
Mr Williamson said he had been 'completely and utterly screwed' and implied his sacking was down to Sir Mark settling a vendetta against him.
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WNU Editor: The former defense secretary is saying that he is innocent .... Gavin Williamson : 'I never have leaked anything from the NSC' (BBC). This is the new defense secretary .... Reporting for duty: UK's first female Defence Secretary and Royal Navy reservist Penny Mordaunt says she is looking forward to 'working with some amazing people' as she starts her first day (Daily Mail).
More News On The Firing Of Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson Over Huawei's Leaks
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson sacked over Huawei leak -- BBC
UK defense chief fired over Huawei leaks, denies involvement -- AP
UK's May fires defense secretary over Huawei leak -- Reuters
UK defense chief ousted over Huawei leak -- The Hill
UK Defense Secretary fired over 'unauthorized disclosure of information' -- CGTN
Was 11-minute phonecall to journalist the evidence that damned Williamson? Sacked Defence Secretary ADMITS he spoke to reporter but denies secrets were revealed -- Daily Mail
Britain’s defense secretary was just fired over Huawei. Here’s what’s going on. -- Washington Post
Wow, The Brits have enveloped themselves in stupidity. Incorporating Huawei into the UK 5G nets is insane - but typical for a country bent on national suicide. This Gavin Williamson is the same idiot who put forward the idea of firing paintballs at Spanish Navy ships that stray into Gibralter's waters.
ReplyDeleteLet's pretend that Huawei is completely on the up-and-up, and serve no interest outside of their own financial gain. Even in THAT world, a country that prides itself on it's intelligence and spying abilities like Great Britain (which is arguably the dominant intelligence partner in the Five Eyes network) should NEVER have gone down that road. They know exactly what an intelligence boon it can be to sneak a back door into the heart of a comm-network, since they're the ones who pioneered it! And in a lot of cases, according to the Snowden leaks (and the ensuing aftermath/investigations) a private company doesn't even need to be compromised for an unfriendly government to use them as a trojan horse. For all anyone in the west knows, the execs at Huawei might honestly BELIEVE that they're uncompromised when they claim as much. But for the leadership of any Five Eyes nation to take those assurances at face-value exemplifies the declining quality of political leadership that we're stuck with these days.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't care less about G.Williamson. Never liked the man, or his opinions. Good riddance I say.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the headlines I thought maybe Williamson was fired because he was stupid but then I remembered that Theresa May is the prime minister.
ReplyDeleteAs for Huawei, you'all have forgotten that Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA and GCHQ do exactly what we're accusing the Chinese of doing with Huawei, and they've been doing it for a long time. You should have figured out by now that, in fact, it was the NSA/GCHQ axis that's been trying to overthrow Trump.
@Carl
ReplyDeleteNobody is forgetting about that. Even if your own intelligence agencies are forcing domestic companies to incorporate backdoors into their equipment you'd still want to use western equipment for your own network. I mean, they're YOUR intelligence agencies to begin with. Heaven forbid GCHQ spies on GCHQ! They're already spying on everyone else. In fact, the only ones who technically still have secrets (and the ability to evade the backdoors) are the intelligence experts who designed them. So it would be pretty silly to use that as an argument as to why the government/corps shouldn't preferentially buy western vs. Huawei equipment.
The alternative is to hand backdoor access to your competitors.
I can't see how it would be beneficial to further weaken our republic just to "stick it" to the intelligence agency vampires who put those backdoors there.