The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 11
At the height of his powers as the govern-
ment chief whip, Gavin Williamson
would often be compared to Francis
Urquhart, the ruthless parliamentary
enforcer in the novel and TV series House
of Cards.
Five years on Williamson has been
consigned to the back benches with his
reputation in tatters, having been sacked
as education secretary for presiding over
the exams fiasco. Comparisons with
Urquhart stopped a long time ago; col-
leagues now liken him in far less flatter-
ing terms to Frank Spencer, the hapless
protagonist of the 1970s sitcom Some
Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em.
And yet, just eight months since being
cast into the political desert, he appears
to have found salvation in the most
unlikely of places. Four thousand miles
away, Williamson, 45, has become a
household name in Somaliland, the
de facto state nestled in the Horn of Africa.
The Yorkshire-born MP has unwit-
tingly become the adopted son of the
breakaway east African republic, having
championed its campaign to be recog-
nised as a sovereign nation while leading
a recent debate in parliament.
Held on January 18, the event gained
little coverage in the domestic press, with
Williamson merely “chuffed” to have
secured a decent turnout of MPs.
However, news spread rapidly
throughout Somaliland, a former British
protectorate in northwest Somalia,
which broke away in 1991 after a bloody
and protracted civil war. Later he
received a flurry of text messages from
Nimco Ali, the Somali-born FGM cam-
paigner and friend of Carrie Johnson,
informing him that he was being lauded
as a national hero.
For a man unused to public adulation,
Williamson’s reaction was one of aston-
ishment. “I thought she was just taking
the Michael,” he said. “But then she
started sending me pictures.”
Dozens of images show Somalilanders
holding aloft banners with Williamson’s
face and name emblazoned on them.
Another, the front page of the Somali
newspaper, The Horn Tribune, carries
his picture and a headline praising his
efforts. One well-wisher made a cappuc-
cino with his likeness sprinkled on top.
It is not quite the divine status that the
late Duke of Edinburgh enjoyed among a
group of islanders in the Pacific, but is
nevertheless something that Williamson
has taken to heart.
“I was just completely overwhelmed.
It’s perhaps not really what I’m used to. I
was very, very surprised and very hum-
bled,” he said.
On January 22 the republic held a
national appreciation day in his honour.
Thousands gathered to pay tribute to him
and other MPs who had promoted their
cause in parliament.
Williamson has since been handed a
Somaliland passport, a national identity
card and even full citizenship, a right thatwould normally require the approval of a
tribal chieftain.
In February Williamson was invited to
Somaliland with a small delegation of
MPs and peers to meet its president,
Muse Bihi Abdi, health and education
ministers and national security officials.
He was joined by Lord Udny-Lister,
Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, and
Ali’s brother, Mo Ali, a film director. On
his arrival he was mobbed by crowds on
in the capital, Hargeisa, with Somali-
land’s media standing by to report on
every second of his visit.
After returning to the UK, Williamson
was instrumental in securing British aidafter Hargeisa’s Waheen market district
was destroyed by fire in April.
A source close to Downing Street said
Williamson had asked Johnson and Liz
Truss, the foreign secretary, to issue pub-
lic statements of support. Tongue in
cheek, one ally of Williamson likens his
celebrity among Somalilanders to that of
TE Lawrence.
Williamson insisted the comparison
was “definitely not justified”, while at the
same time relating how, on his most
recent visit, he was surrounded by a
group of women chanting “freedom
fighter” in Somali.
“It is a fascinating place — you can’thelp but be intoxicated,” he said. “It puts
a big responsibility on your shoulders,
because you know how important it is to
so many people.”
A number of Williamson’s colleagues
suspect he became involved in the cam-
paign only to try to curry favour with a
friend of the prime minister’s wife, but
the cynicism seems unfounded. He said
his interest in Africa dated back to his
days as a student and friendships he
kindled while a minister.
“I was very struck by how something
so awful in many ways got so little atten-
tion,” he said of the Somali civil war, an
ethnic conflict that began in the 1980sHe was
mobbed
on his
arrivalArise, King Gaven of Somaliland
Harry Yorke Deputy Political Editor
Derided as education secretary, Williamson is now hailed as an independence hero in east Africa (even if they’ve got his name wrong)
when rebel groups took up an armed
struggle against the military junta led by
General Siad Barre.
Barre was overthrown, with Somali-
land declaring independence in 1991 and
demilitarising. The region, while remain-
ing one of the poorest in the world, has
rebuilt and holds regular elections.
Located on the Gulf of Aden with Dji-
bouti to the northwest and Ethiopia to its
south, Somaliland is about the same size
as England and Wales combined, but is
home to just 5.7 million people. It is
largely arid and its economy remains
heavily reliant on agriculture and live-
stock exports, but it is seeking to diversify
and develop closer trade ties with the
West. Somalia, which as a former Italian
protectorate is historically and culturally
distinct, remains largely ungovernable.
Military warlords and the Islamist terror
group al-Shabaab control large areas.
Somaliland is unrecognised by the
international community. The African
Union opposes meddling by the western
nations that carved up the continent,
only to wash their hands of their former
colonial territories as the winds of change
blew in the 1960s.
While David Cameron’s government
reviewed the UK’s foreign policy stance
in the region in 2012, Williamson said
the result was merely an attempt to
salvage a nation that had been split
irreversibly in two. Cameron is now said
to acknowledge privately that the policy
has failed.
Williamson believes Johnson’s desire
to carve a new path for post-Brexit Britain
presents an opportunity. “We have
the opportunity not just to manage the
status quo but actually change things for
the better, to make a difference and to
take the steps that are needed and
required to improve the lives of millions,”
he said.
In March Williamson was given a
knighthood — an honour Downing Street
insiders acknowledge as recognition of
his role in helping Johnson become
prime minister in 2019. His reputation for
being a kingmaker remains undimin-
ished, with rumours that he is helping
Truss prepare a leadership bid if Johnson
steps down. He insists this is untrue.
But would he rule out filling a post in
the Foreign Office were Truss to become
leader? “I’m being boringly unmischie-
vous,” he replies with a grin.Gavin Williamson
meeting an
admirer,
brandishing a
misspelt
placard with
his name, in
Somaliland