• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Trust ‘completely destroyed’ in complaints process after Patel bullying row

“And the impact of all of this, of not having a proper process in place to deal with ministers, is … we’ve seen trust and confidence completely destroyed.”

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2021-03-02 15:22
in Politics
Credit;PA

Credit;PA

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A union representing senior civil servants said it “cannot be right” that ministers do not face an independent complaints process in the wake of the Home Secretary bullying furore.

During an evidence session with MPs, the FDA was asked about the ministerial code following the Prime Minister’s decision to disregard the findings of Sir Alex Allan, his adviser on ministerial standards, in order to back Home Secretary Priti Patel last year after she was embroiled in bullying complaints.

With the union currently involved in a judicial review in a bid to “overturn” Boris Johnson’s ruling that Ms Patel did not breach the code – despite Sir Alex, who resigned following the Prime Minister’s decision, finding her behaviour constituted bullying – it meant officials could not touch on the case directly during their appearance in front of the Standards Committee on Tuesday.

Speaking in broad terms, FDA assistant general secretary Amy Leversidge said the lack of an independent system to judge complaints against ministers had “completely destroyed” the trust and confidence of civil servants.

Breach ministerial code

Ministers are usually expected to resign if they breach the ministerial code but Mr Johnson, who is its arbiter, judged that Ms Patel had not fallen foul of the rules, allowing her to keep her Cabinet position.

Ms Leversidge told the committee: “We do have views about the ministerial code and the operation of that.

“I think that, speaking in broad terms and not speaking about the specifics of that (judicial review), one of the things is that it cannot be right that ministers are held to lower standards of behaviour than the civil servants with which they work.

RelatedPosts

Nicola Sturgeon calls for urgent meeting with PM over cost-of-living crisis

13,000 migrants have crossed Channel since Rwanda plan announced, figures show

No 10 ‘will assist’ inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs

Sunak pledges new ‘Brexit delivery unit’ with mega cringe video

“If a civil servant behaves in a particular way, they can be dismissed as a result of that behaviour but for a minister there is no accountability for their behaviour. That cannot be right.

The Prime Minister is facing a judicial review over his decision to stand by the Home Secretary
The Prime Minister is facing a judicial review over his decision to stand by the Home Secretary (Christopher Furlong/PA)

“It also cannot be right, and it is fundamentally a problem, that if you have an individual who is an MP who in Parliament behaves in a certain way, the staff in Parliament would have the ability to be able to have a complaint independently investigated from beginning to end and have a sanction and judgment determined independently.

“But if that same MP walked up the road into their Whitehall department as a minister and behaved in exactly the same way, the civil servants don’t have any means by which to progress a complaint – that can’t be right either.

Confidence destroyed

“And the impact of all of this, of not having a proper process in place to deal with ministers, is … we’ve seen trust and confidence completely destroyed.”

FDA general secretary Dave Penman, when announcing the court action last month, said a survey taken of its members who are most likely to work with ministers found that nearly 90% said they had no confidence in the ministerial code as a mechanism for dealing with bullying and harassment by ministers.

Following the publication of Sir Alex’s report, Ms Patel issued an “unreserved, fulsome apology” and said there were “no excuses” for what happened.

A report in the Times suggested however that the Prime Minister is considering removing Ms Patel from the Home Office after she “failed to sound sufficiently contrite” following the publication of the inquiry into her behaviour, with Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove tipped as a possible replacement.

Related: Watchdog hits out at lack of transparency over government’s Covid ‘tsars’

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

NHS worker describes observing Ramadan working on Covid-19 ward

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Sunday 22 November 2020

Can Man Utd legend Wayne Rooney save Derby County

Husband granted bail despite being accused of murdering his pregnant wife 20 years ago

Britain’s bravest postie foiled his 14th robbery by laughing in the armed robbers’ faces!

UKIP millionaire jailed for manslaughter after ignoring safety pleas – telling worker: ‘F**k that, it’s getting stupid money now.’

This is what happened when policeman posed with huge confiscated sword

Bond car from Goldfinger for sale and you’ll need a lot of gold to buy it

US Powerball Jackpot Set to Hit $1.4 Billion

Watch: Raab slammed as he gives three different Omicron hospital admission numbers

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.