Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson's Pet Tarantula Evicted From MoD

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson’s pet spider, two-year-old Cronus, has been given its marching orders by the Ministry of Defence. 

The minister's tarantula was evicted after it emerged a co-worker has arachnophobia, reports The Sun. 

A source told the newspaper: “The spider is no longer in the building.”

Cronus is named after the Greek god who castrated his dad and ate his children to stop them overthrowing him.

Mr Williamson famously kept the spider on his desk in the Commons when he was chief whip.

When he was promoted to Defence Secretary after Sir Michael Fallon quit, he planned for the eight-legged creature to go with him.

But Cronus has now been returned to the Commons and is being taken to the Defence Secretary’s Staffordshire home for Christmas, reports The Sun.

In November, the Labour MP and former defence minister Kevan Jones put in a parliamentary question about the MoD's policy on pets, asking "whether civil servants and members of the armed forces working in MoD Main Building are permitted to bring domestic pets to work."

Last week the MoD finally responded saying, 

“Civil Servants and members of the Armed Forces are not permitted to bring domestic pets into Ministry of Defence Main Building.

“The only exception to this policy are dogs which work to assist individuals who have disabilities such as visual impairment or deafness, or an animal that is necessary for the security of the building such as a police sniffer dog.”