An inquiry into allegations of bullying by United Kingdom Home Secretary, Priti Patel has found evidence she broke the Ministerial Code.
However, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson immediately rejected the report, saying the Code had not been broken, prompting the report’s author, Sir Alex Allan (pictured), to resign.
After allegations of bullying by Ms Patel surfaced earlier in the year, the then Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam resigned.
Sir Alex, Mr Johnson’s Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, began an investigation into whether Ms Patel had broken the Ministerial Code.
He submitted his report two months ago, but Mr Johnson did not act until it was leaked last week announcing that his “judgement is that the Ministerial Code was not breached”.
The report summary shows that while Sir Alex said the Public Service needed to reflect on its role, his judgement on Ms Patel was unequivocal.
Sir Alex wrote: “My advice is that the Home Secretary has not consistently met the high standards required by the Ministerial Code of treating her Civil Servants with consideration and respect.
“Her approach on occasions has amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying in terms of the impact felt by individuals,” Sir Alex said.
“To that extent her behaviour has been in breach of the Ministerial Code, even if unintentionally,” he said.
Former head of the Public Service, Lord O’Donnell said Sir Alex had been right to resign.
“The Prime Minister has [done] what he’s allowed to do under the current system, [which] is to say: ‘Well I disagree with the view of my independent investigator’,” Lord O’Donnell said.
“Alex, to my mind quite rightly, has said: ‘Well look, if you don’t value my judgement then there’s really little point in me carrying on with this job,’ so he’s resigned,” he said.
Lord O’Donnell said the episode was a sign of wider problems with the system.
“One problem is that only the Prime Minister can decide whether there should be an investigation,” he said.
“So first of all we need an independent investigator to take these on, as has been recommended by the Commissioner on Standards in Public Life, Jonathan Evans,” Lord O’Donnell said.
London, 22 November 2020
