The missteps of a man in a hurry

Johnson’s defence of his Home Secretary is typically over the top but can’t mask the risk for his government

The Prime Minister’s resolute defence of his underfire Home Secretary is everything that we have come to expect of him.

Priti Patel, who has been accused of bullying in what by Whitehall standards are genuinely sensational circumstances, does not just continue to command the confidence of Number 10, she is “a fantastic Home Secretary” who is “delivering” in tough circumstances. The display of absolute self-assurance and bluff dismissal of critics in the face of mounting pressure are Boris Johnson trademarks.

This controversy is unlikely to be brushed off quite as easily, however, as many previous ones.

It is not unsusual of course for a government minister to fall out with senior civil servants. Countless examples have been charted over the decades in numerous political diaries and in endless gossip in Westminster corridors.

On this occasion, it is different for two important reasons.

The declared intention of her Permanent Secretary Sir Philip Rutnam to sue the government for constructive dismissal is perhaps unprecedented. The prospect of the Home Secretary having to give evidence to an employment tribunal against witnesses claiming she was behind a “vicious and orchestrated” campaign against her own staff means we have certainly not heard the last of this.

The pressure for at the very least a formal investigation into the allegations being made against her are only likely to grow.

While the Prime Minister won’t welcome the knives being out for one of his ministers, it won’t unduly trouble him.

There is something else which he should be far more concerned about. Sir Philip’s resignation, and the manner of it, point to a much deeper problem between the Johnson government and its civil servants. In his resignation, which comes only days after the former chancellor Savid Javid quit, expressing concerns about how the government is behaving, Sir Philip made reference to the allegations he was raising being part of a “wider pattern”.

The Prime Minister has the appearance of a man in a hurry, who wants to get things done, and doesn’t care who he upsets along the way. That is all well and good, but he may find that getting things done is much harder without the support of government officials.