The battle to succeed Theresa May erupted into fresh acrimony last night as top Tories traded blows over whether Gavin Williamson leaked intelligence last week to distract attention from an extramarital “flirtation”.
Security chiefs attacked the defence secretary as “alarmist” for claiming Russia could kill thousands of British citizens in a cyber-attack and accused him of using secret information provided by American spies to cover himself.
However, the allegations sparked an extraordinary row in which Williamson accused his rivals for the Tory leadership of black ops to derail his campaign to succeed May as prime minister.
“This is an attempt to smear a cabinet minister in an attempt to promote the leadership campaign of someone else,” said a friend of Williamson, indicating that he believed allies of Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, were behind the accusations.
Williamson said on Thursday — the same day that he confessed to jeopardising his marriage in 2004 by kissing a former work colleague — that Russia could cause “thousands and thousands and thousands” of deaths by targeting energy and gas pipelines.
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MoD officials denied that he used classified information but confirmed that a complaint was made by a Foreign Office official about the “tone” of his interview.
One security official expressed concerns that going into such detail about what is known about Russian surveillance in the UK could compromise sources and anger the UK’s intelligence partners: “He used intelligence, not all of it the UK’s, to try to distract attention.”
A defence source added: “People at GCHQ were furious.”
The row suggests cabinet ministers are openly manoeuvring in the expectation May might be deposed by her party. It comes as:
• A cabinet minister vowed to launch a “suicide bombing” resignation demanding that May stand down if colleagues quit, too
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• Two former cabinet ministers and eight younger MPs privately agreed to submit letters demanding a vote of no confidence in May
• Donald Trump reportedly criticised her handling of the Brexit negotiations as not tough enough
• Her Brexit negotiator, Oliver Robbins, told Brussels officials that May would support Britain remaining in a customs union with the EU even after the two-year transition phase is over — a claim that will enrage Eurosceptics
• Brexit-backing MPs pledged to demand May’s departure unless she sacked Philip Hammond, her chancellor.
Claims Williamson used classified material from American sources to distract from the story about his love life are toxic given that May had previously complained to Trump after US officials leaked British intelligence on last year’s terror attack in Manchester to the American media.
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A source close to Williamson insisted that Thursday’s interview with The Daily Telegraph on Russia was pre-planned, that details of his claims were provided in a briefing book drawn up by MoD officials and that No 10 was fully informed about his plans.
“The only complaints we have had were about the tone,” one ally said.
The MoD added: “We can categorically confirm that the secretary of state did not release any classified material at any point.”
Senior government sources confirmed that Downing Street was aware that Williamson had been due to do an interview on Thursday, but made clear they had no idea about its contents until it appeared.
A defence intelligence source branded Williamson “amateurish” over the extravagant claims.
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Making clear that the concerns were shared by some spy chiefs, the source said: “No one has ever gone that far before in quantifying the potential risk to life as a result of a destructive attack by Russia, or any other hostile nation, against Britain’s infrastructure. We wouldn’t want to speculate and be alarmist.”
Johnson’s spokesman refused to comment.
