UK High Court to look at PM’s decision on Home Secy Patel ‘bullying’

By LE Desk

London, April 28: The UK’s High Court has decided to look into Boris Johnson’s decision that Home Secretary Priti Patel did not break Whitehall rules over bullying.

The Prime Minister kept Ms Patel in post last year after he found she had not breached the ministerial code, which sets behavioural standards. But the FDA senior civil servants’ union, which brought the case, argued that Mr Johnson had “erred”, the BBC reported.

The court will now give a full hearing into its claims against him.

The government opposed taking the case forward in this way, saying the ministerial code was separate from the law and should remain so.

In November, an inquiry carried out by the prime minister’s head of standards, Sir Alex Allan, found that Ms Patel had “unintentionally” broken the ministerial code.

Her approach to staff had “on occasions… amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying in terms of the impact felt” by individuals, it added. But it said the home secretary – who offered a “fulsome apology” – had sometimes “legitimately… not always felt supported” by others within the Home Office.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-56901333