Just five per cent back Boris Johnson's knighthood for Gavin Williamson, YouGov poll finds

A YouGov survey of over 3,000 British adults found just one per cent strongly approved of the move, with four per cent tending to approve.

In contrast, 38 per cent strongly disapproved and 15 per cent tended to disapprove. A total of 14 per cent said they didn’t know, while 29 per cent had not heard of Mr Williamson.

Mr Williamson was twice sacked as a Cabinet minister and oversaw the exams fiasco during the coronavirus pandemic.

Downing Street said on Thursday that the Queen has approved the honour for the Tory MP, who was widely criticised for a series of errors as education secretary.

The Prime Minister sacked Mr Williamson from that role in September and he was previously dumped as defence secretary following an inquiry into a leak from the National Security Council.

The knighthood is reportedly being given to the 45-year-old, who helped run Mr Johnson’s successful 2019 campaign to succeed Theresa May as Tory leader, on the basis of his political and public service.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting tweeted last week: “Reward for failure. Shameless.”

Mr Williamson clung on as education secretary for more than two years despite being battered by repeated calls for his resignation.

His handling of disruption to schools during the height of the pandemic and the grading of GCSEs and A-levels after exams were cancelled was widely seen as disastrous.

He was also criticised for confusing free school meals campaigning footballer Marcus Rashford with England rugby star Maro Itoje. Both men are black.

Mr Williamson was rewarded with the role as education secretary by the Prime Minister in July 2019 despite being sacked as defence secretary by Mrs May earlier that year.

That firing came following an inquiry into the leak of information from a security council meeting about Chinese telecoms firm Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s 5G mobile network. Mr Williamson denied being the source of the leak.

He was previously Mrs May’s chief whip, and in that period was best known in Westminster for keeping a pet tarantula named Cronus on his desk and he has acquired the nickname Private Pike, after the hapless Dad’s Army character.

No 10, asked why the knighthood was being announced now and not part of an honours list, said it was a political appointment by the Conservative Party.