UNITED KINGDOM
Staff at the United Kingdom Home Office have accused their Minister, Priti Patel of being a bully, belittling officials and creating an “atmosphere of fear”.
Multiple sources have accused the Home Secretary of making unreasonable demands and being rude and aggressive in meetings.
There have been angry scenes at the top after she reportedly tried to oust her most senior Public Servant, Sir Philip Rutnam (pictured), after he raised concerns about her behaviour.
A senior Whitehall source claimed that the situation had become “completely unsustainable and was going to blow up”.
Matters are understood to have come to a head when a senior Home Office official collapsed after a tense meeting with Ms Patel over the deportation of foreign criminals to Jamaica, which has sparked widespread backlash.
A team had been working through the night on ways to reverse a High Court ruling barring 25 men from being put on a flight out of the country.
The official fell ill the next morning, after being confronted by an angry Ms Patel who demanded to know why the Department had failed to turn around the judgement.
A Home Office spokesperson said there had been no formal complaints against Ms Patel and the office took the welfare of staff extremely seriously.
However, that has not stopped Sir Philip writing to all members of the senior Public Service in the Department highlighting the dangers of workplace stress and making clear they could not be expected to do unrealistic work outside office hours.
London, 22 February 2020
