Our Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in one of the most senior goverment posts, is widely regarded as unlikeable and not the brightest, even by Boris standards. During the first lockdown, she was rolled out to give a press briefing which was a disaster – she could not even read out the number of tests that had been recorded.
Ms Patel has a bit of a history of not always telling the truth, and has resigned from posts before under a cloud.
But there have long been tales of her bullying people in her department, causing upset, resignations and even a suicide attempt by one of the victim. To cut a long story short, there was an independent investigation into this that landed on Boris Johnson’s desk earlier this year but which has just come to light now.
The report clearly showed that the woman had broken what is called the “ministerial code”, was a potty mouth, had abused, humiliated and demeaned staff. She had to go.
But friend Boris Johnson, showing just how much he backs anti-bullying, rejected the entire report, let Ms Patel continue in her job dong just what she was doing. The person who conducted the report was forced to resign.
Ms Patel has appeared on tv etc. She apologised, said no-one had ever told her. But you can see from the interview that she sits there looking smug, almost laughing that, yet again, she has got away with it. She does this very well, but she is well practised.
Now it appears that Boris had demanded the report be ‘palatable‘. This was ignored. Also, Ms Patel had been told repeatedly that her behaviour was not acceptable.