Politics
Kate Plummer
May 03, 2021
AP
Gavin Williamson has received an angry voicemail from a student who Googled his phone number.
In a column for theMail on Sunday, Sarah Vine revealed that the Education Secretary had received some feedback from a student who felt that the algorithms used to determine A-Level grades last year had been unfair. She said:
“Last year, when the A-level fiasco was happening, the daughter of a friend of mine decided to phone Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to tell him how she felt about having her results ruined by an algorithm. It took no time at all to find his number on Google, whereupon she left him a tearful voicemail message. Politicians have no privacy, I’m afraid. It comes with the territory.”
It comes after it was revealed that Boris Johnson’s mobile number has been listed online for 15 years. Top civil servant Simon Case and the Downing Street security detail have begged the PM to change his digits and concerns have been raised that Johnson is too readily available to characters such as James Dyson. Though when we rang him, he declined to answer.
“Why is everyone shouting at the PM for having his phone number online? I thought people wanted their politicians to be more in touch,” Vine added.
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Reacting to the story, people on social media couldn’t believe another senior member of the government had their phone number online:
@PoliticsForAlI Actual footage... https://t.co/Yz6GEb0aFU— Ahmer Wadee (@Ahmer Wadee) 1619979702
@PoliticsForAlI Jesus Christ, do they all just have their number publicly available?— Jack Bailey (@Jack Bailey) 1619978314
@PoliticsForAlI No wonder he was sacked from Defence if he can’t even keep his own number secure— Jack Bailey (@Jack Bailey) 1619978364
While others praised the student for giving Williamson a piece of her mind:
@PoliticsForAlI what a legend— noah (@noah) 1619978299
@PoliticsForAlI give the kid the keys to the country— harry (@harry) 1619978337
Another said they would be searching for Matt Hancock’s number:
Be right back, just on the blower to Liz Truss and might have a catch up with Priti Patel later.
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