WITHIN hours of Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterating his confidence in Priti Patel amidst a “tsunami” of allegations, the home secretary was accused of flinging a file at an official’s face.
A Whitehall source told a daily: “She was being briefed by officials for an event and there was a page missing and she got annoyed. At the end of the briefing, she threw the folder at him and hit him in the face.
“It was so aggressive. She didn't apologise. It was just like when Alex Ferguson chucked the boot at Beckham.”
However, the home secretary’s spokesman said the allegation was “categorically false”, and allies rallied behind her in support.
“If someone threw a file at you, you would report it, wouldn't you?” asked former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, under whom Patel worked at the time of the alleged incident.
“There wasn't a complaint," he said.
Smith believed “some of the civil service are using Priti Patel to take on the Government… to weaken Downing Street's resolve”.
“It's complete nonsense from start to end,” he said.
“I've worked with her and yes, she's tough, she's strident. But she's trying to get a job done.”
Hours before the new allegation surfaced, Johnson told ITV that his “instinct is to stick with Prit”, and maintained that Patel was “doing an outstanding job”.
“There is a proper Cabinet office investigation, we will get to the bottom of it,” he said.
On Wednesday (4), the prime minister had told the House of Commons: “The Home Secretary is doing an outstanding job—delivering change, putting police on the streets, cutting crime and delivering a new immigration system—and I am sticking by her.”
Patel faced a slew of allegations of bullying and inappropriate conduct, and the issue came to a boil last week with Sir Philip Rutnam resigning as permanent secretary.
He alleged that she swore at staff and made unreasonable demands, and threatened to sue the government for his exit.
Critics demanded an independent inquiry on allegations against Patel, and wanted her to step down during the probe.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in the House of Commons on Monday (2): “A minister in breach of the ministerial code cannot remain in office and should be dismissed.”
A former minister who worked with Patel called her a “serial offender”.
“There hasn't been a single government department in which she has worked where there haven't been complaints about her conduct—whether it was the Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, Dfid or now the Home Office,” the minister said.
On Wednesday (4), reports said there was a “tsunami” of allegations against from Patel’s time at the Department for International Development.
A senior figure in the department told the Daily Mail that had Patel “harassed” her private secretary, who “eventually signed off sick with a stress-related condition” and sought transfer.
A source said: “She was utterly appalling to him, really nasty and demanding all of the time.
“She bullied the f*** out of him to the point he got ill and asked for a move.”
A former DfID official, however, countered the allegation: “Priti wanted to get a new private secretary, which is not uncommon for a new minister. It was handled a bit awkwardly, but it all ended amicably.
“The claim she was bullying him is just not true and is being put about maliciously.”
Patel’s allies maintained that “dark forces” were trying to remove the “superb minister”. Some of them also accused Labour of “coordinating bullying allegations against Patel”.
A Labour spokesperson had claimed “government staff” were contacting the party’s office “directly with information and allegations about bullying in the Home Office by Priti Patel”.
Cabinet minister Liam Fox said: “It is now clear a small proportion [of civil servants] have abandoned any attempt at impartiality. The Cabinet Secretary needs to act to restore the integrity of the service.
“There is a malicious and highly politicised minority who seem to be cooperating with a Labour Party who seem to have abandoned ethics altogether.”
Smith, too, alleged that string of allegations against Patel is a “political attempt to oust a Cabinet minister” that has “nothing to do with her running of the department”.
He said: “Priti has become a pawn in the game between disgruntled Leftist civil servants who are now using this to try to weaken the government and its determination.”
Some of Patel’s allies wondered aloud whether a sexist campaign was on against Patel.
Conservative MP Mark Fletcher said: “There seems to be a pattern between the appointment of female home secretaries and vicious briefings in the media against them.
“Is it possible that some of these unelected men have a problem with taking instructions from powerful women?”
Wal Chahal
