London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Ex-education secretary Gavin Williamson takes £50k second job with education firm

Ex-education secretary Gavin Williamson takes £50k second job with education firm

Former minister will spend 80 hours a year chairing advisory board of RTC Education
Gavin Williamson has taken a £50,000-a-year second job as an adviser to a firm that runs private schools, university courses and education investments – less than a year after leaving the role of education secretary.

The former chief whip has taken a job as chair of the advisory board of RTC Education Ltd, which has given more than £165,000 to the Conservatives.

According to Companies House, RTC’s chair is Maurizio Bragagni, a major Tory donor in his own right, who has hit the headlines in recent weeks over comments about sharia law that the party distanced itself from.

In March No 10 backed away from imposing curbs on MPs’ roles with private firms, amid controversy about whether such roles could create a conflict of interest and wider concerns about the revolving door between the government and industry.

RTC Education, also known as Regent Group, describes itself as an “education, real estate management and investment organisation that owns and manages independent schools, higher education colleges and an investment business”.

Williamson’s role is providing general strategic advice to the company on its international expansion, as well as chairing advisory board meetings. It will take an estimated 80 hours a year – working out at a rate of about £625 an hour.

The move has been approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), the watchdog on post-ministerial jobs that even its own chair, Eric Pickles, admits is toothless because it has no enforcement powers.

Acoba suggested that Williamson may have been party to sensitive information while secretary of state that could be relevant to RTC Education but concluded “this risk is limited given eight months have passed since you left office and the DfE considered the information you had access to would no longer be sufficiently up to date to be of use to the organisation”.

However, it imposed four conditions on Williamson as he takes up the appointment, including a ban on him lobbying the government on RTC Education’s behalf, or making use of any of his contacts to aid the company for two years from the date he was sacked.

Williamson and RTC Education have been approached for comment.

Other former cabinet ministers to have gone on to lucrative jobs in the sectors they formerly governed include the former transport secretaries Patrick McLoughlin, who took a role with Airlines UK, an industry lobbying body, and XRail, a railway services company, and Chris Grayling, who took a £100,000-a-year job as a strategic adviser to a ports company.

Nicky Morgan, a former culture secretary, Treasury minister and now a peer, took on roles on the board of Santander bank, as a consultant to the corporate law firm Travers Smith, and as a senior adviser to the lobbying and PR firm Grayling, as well as becoming the independent chair of the Association of British Insurers.

Several former ministers have taken up roles advising foreign governments or their state organs, including the former Foreign Office minister Mark Field, who was approved for a job advising the Cayman Islands, and Philip Hammond, the former chancellor and now a peer, who took roles advising Kuwaiti and Bahraini financial authorities.

Analysis by the Guardian in November found half of all ministers who had left office in the Boris Johnson or Theresa May governments had later taken up posts with companies relevant to their former government jobs.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×