10 DOWNING STREET
LONDON SW1A2AA

THE PRIME MINISTER 1 May 2019

Gap.

Thank you for your time this evening. We discussed the investigation into the
unauthorised disclosure of information from the National Security Council
meeting on 23 April.

This is an extremely serious matter, and a deeply disappointing one. It is vital for
the operation of good government and for the national interest in some of
the most sensitive and important areas that the members of the NSC from our
Armed Forces, our Security and Intelligence Agencies, and the most senior level
of Government are able to have frank and detailed discussions in full con?dence
that the advice and analysis provided is not discussed or divulged beyond that
trusted environment.

That is why I commissioned the Cabinet Secretary to establish an investigation
into the unprecedented leak from the NSC meeting last week, and why I expected
everyone connected to it Ministers and of?cials alike to comply with it fully.
You undertook to do so.

I am therefore concerned by the manner in which you have engaged with this
investigation. It has been conducted fairly, with the full co?operation of other
NSC attendees. They have all answered questions, engaged properly, provided as
much information as possible to assist with the investigation, and encouraged
their staff to do the same. Your conduct has not been of the same standard
as others?.

In our meeting this evening, I put to you the latest information from the
investigation, which provides compelling evidence suggesting your responsibility
for the unauthorised disclosure. No other, credible version of events to explain
this leak has been identified.

It is vital that I have full con?dence in the members of my Cabinet and of the
National Security Council. The gravity of this issue alone, and its rami?cations
for the operation of the NSC and the national interest, warrants the serious
steps we have taken, and an equally serious response.

It is therefore with great sadness that I have concluded that I can no longer have
full con?dence in you as Secretary of State for Defence and a Minister in my
Cabinet and asked you to leave Her Majesty?s Government.

As you do so, I would like to thank you for the wider contribution you have made

to it over the last three years, and for your unquestionable personal commitment
to the men and women of our Armed Forces.

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The Right Honourable Gavin Williamson CBE MP