Gavin Williamson is clearly a man who is happy to take a risk. His comments that he would welcome a police investigation increase the chances that one might happen, and yet Williamson’s rationale for wanting an investigation is vanishingly thin.
Williamson claims that the notepad of the Daily Telegraph reporter, Steven Swinford, “would show that I didn’t say anything” and that subsequently he would get the “nicest apology’ from the PM.
Aside from the improbability that Williamson would make a telephone call to the reporter (which he accepts that he did) but then be totally silent, the fact is that he could not guarantee that the journalist would cooperate with a police investigation to protect his source. Journalistic ethics make it highly unlikely that Swinford would be willing to reveal what was or was not said.
The fact is that there are reasonable grounds upon which a criminal investigation could be commenced.
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