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Quit, Labour tells Priti Patel, as new ‘bullying’ charges emerge
The Cabinet Office inquiry was announced on Monday after the top civil servant in the Home Office, Philip Rutnam, resigned publicly, levelling a series of allegations against her and announcing his intention to sue the government. Patel has rejected the allegations.
Labour on Tuesday demanded that home secretary Priti Patel step down while the inquiry into allegations of bullying against her is carried out, as details emerged of a £25,000 settlement to a bureaucrat who complained against her in 2015 when she was employment minister.
The Cabinet Office inquiry was announced on Monday after the top civil servant in the Home Office, Philip Rutnam, resigned publicly, levelling a series of allegations against her and announcing his intention to sue the government. Patel has rejected the allegations.
The 2015 complaint relates to Patel’s former aide who received the payout from the government after claiming she was bullied by her . The person took an overdose of medicine following the alleged incident. Her department did not admit liability and the case did not come before a tribunal.
Legal correspondence reported by the BBC shows the employee bringing a formal complaint of bullying and harassment against the department, including Patel, after being dismissed from her role in October 2015.
The staff member alleges she was told the decision to dismiss her a year later was not made on performance grounds but because Patel did not “like (her) face”, according to comments attributed to her line-manager and a colleague.
Patel had also reportedly shouted at the woman in her private office and told her to “get lost” and “get out of her face”, the correspondence alleges. Patel is described as having acted “without warning” and with an “unprovoked level of aggression”, in the complaint.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott called on Patel to stand down while the inquiry is carried out. According to her, the Cabinet Office inquiry was not sufficiently impartial to restore public trust in the relationship between the government and the civil service.
“We’ve had other allegations come up overnight and unless you have a conclusive and independent inquiry this thing may run on to the detriment of Priti herself and the government. I’m afraid it would be better if she stood down. We are calling on her to step down while the inquiry goes on,” Abbott said.
Employee union leaders questioned the confidence placed in Patel by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other ministers before the inquiry has completed its work and arrived at a conclusion on the allegations.
Rutnam, who resigned over the weekend, said his experience in office under Patel had been “extreme”, adding that he had received allegations that her conduct included “shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands - behaviour that created fear and that needed some bravery to call out”.
Accusing Patel of orchestrating a campaign against him, he said in a statement: “In the last 10 days, I have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign. It has been alleged that I have briefed the media against the home secretary”.
“This - along with many other claims - is completely false. The home secretary categorically denied any involvement in this campaign to the Cabinet Office. I regret I do not believe her. She has not made the efforts I would expect to dissociate herself from the comments.”
