Awkward moment Gavin Williamson repeatedly refuses to reveal his A-level results in live interview

Watch: Education secretary refuses to reveal his own A-level results

Gavin Williamson has repeatedly refused to reveal his A-level results during a live interview.

Speaking to LBC Radio on Tuesday as students in the UK are set to receive their results, the education secretary was reluctant to give out his own.

He was asked repeatedly by host Nick Ferrari to tell listeners his results, but he kept dodging the question.

Williamson said: “I don’t think I mentioned my grades. It was so long ago, I mean, it was 27 years ago.

“I didn’t get three A-stars, it’s fair to say."

Ferrari asked: “Why won’t you tell me – is it a state secret?"

Williamson replied: “It absolutely is. I’ve forgotten, it’s so long ago. It was 27 years ago. You probably can’t remember what happened last weekend, Nick."

Earlier in the interview, Williamson said: "I remember walking up to those college doors and going in to my college at sixth form and getting the envelope and opening up that envelope and seeing the grades on there and feeling just absolute delight as the sudden realisation that actually all my dreams of that next step of doing social science at Bradford University opened up.

“For a lad growing up in Scarborough, Bradford was the most exotic and exciting place in the whole world."

Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level results today, while in Scotland, Higher and National results are being issued.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, Williamson said: “When students open their results, I know that for many there will be the same trepidation and anxiety that I felt 27 years ago when I opened that envelope.

“And in this exceptional year, students have had to grapple with unique challenges, from less face-to-face teaching to being isolated from friends.”

In a separate interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Williamson said teacher-assessed grades were the right and “only” approach the government could take this year as a result of the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

He defended what is expected to be an increase in higher grades awarded this year, but said that, after the pandemic, there will have to be a “glide path” back to “a more normal state of affairs”.

He told the programme: “This is an exceptional year. It is unlike any other year, and hopefully will be unlike any other year in the future, but I believe this is the right thing for children.

“I do expect to see youngsters getting better grades this year than maybe they have in previous years, but they have worked incredibly hard for those grades, wherever they have been, right across the country, and I think we should be celebrating that, and it gives them the opportunity to take that next step.”

Watch: Williamson says next year's A-level students will still have faced disruption