LEAKS IN WESTMINSTER are common. Leaks from meetings of the National Security Council (NSC), which include cabinet ministers, generals and an array of spooks, are not. When details of Theresa May’s decision to allow Huawei, a Chinese telecoms group, to build next-generation infrastructure in Britain appeared in the Daily Telegraph on April 24th, an inquiry was duly launched. It took barely a week to find its man. The supposed mole? Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary.
Despite swearing his innocence (“on my children’s lives”), Mr Williamson was sacked by Mrs May on May 1st. Her letter to him was brutal. There was “compelling” evidence that he had leaked details of the meeting. No other “credible” story existed. Mr Williamson has been replaced by Penny Mordaunt, previously secretary for international development, who also attended the fateful meeting but managed to keep her mouth shut. She in turn is replaced by the ambitious Rory Stewart.
Mrs May has now lost ten cabinet members in less than three years in office. Mr Williamson was liked by defence chiefs for winning more money for his department, but became a tabloid figure of fun after squeaking that Russia should “go away and shut up”. As a former chief whip he gave the prime minister valuable insight into the unhappy...
