Patel report must be public

More questions than answers

AS BORIS Johnson’s controversial decision that Home Secretary Priti Patel had not breached the ministerial code amid bullying allegations was made public, a Government spokesman optimistically said the Prime Minister now considers the matter closed.

There are several reasons why that will not be the case. Firstly, Mr Johnson’s ruling went directly against the findings of an inquiry which had found her behaviour to be in breach of the code – albeit with caveats – and resulted in the immediate resignation of Sir Alex Allan, the PM’s adviser on ministerial standards and the person who conducted the inquiry. The political fallout to the extraordinary situation – where the only person who resigns after a bullying inquiry is the investigator – has only just begun.

Secondly, the inquiry followed the resignation of the Home Office’s permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam, who accused Ms Patel of a “vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign” against him and is claiming constructive dismissal at an employment tribunal due to be heard next year.

Thirdly, the full facts are still very much to be established. A summary of Sir Alex’s findings running to little more than a page has been published but raises as many questions as it answers. The summary notes that while Ms Patel’s behaviour towards civil servants “amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying”, she also had justifiable reason to be frustrated by a “lack of responsiveness” from Home Office managers towards her requests and direction.

This matters – just as any kind of workplace bullying should not be tolerated, nor should politicians elected by the public to run Government departments be obstructed from doing their jobs effectively by civil servants. Finding where the truth lies and the interests of transparency would be greatly assisted by the publication of the full report.