Amid all the comment about #Williamson's resignation, which I can't really add to, this little detail jumped out at me.

Williamson's erroneous use of "refute" to indicate that he disputes the characterisation of his behaviour is not only a crime against the English language, but also strangely similar to the words of a "friend of Williamson" four days ago.

Not often you get such strong evidence that "friend of X" can typically be taken to just mean X.