Category Archives: Intimidation

Amid frantic denials, is Steve Barclay the Tories’ next bullying scandal? 

Steve Barclay: another Tory bully?

Is he a bully or isn’t he?

The Guardian reckons the Department of Health’s top civil servant has received multiple complaints about Health Secretary Steve Barclay; the DoH itself says he hasn’t.

So your answer, for the moment, depends on who you trust.

It’s certainly true that the Tory government won’t want to deal with another bullying scandal so soon after Dominic Raab, and will want to discourage civil servants from acting on the precedent created by the former Deputy Prime Minister’s case.

According to the Graun,

senior civil servants in the department had privately referred to “bullying” and other “bad behaviour” by Barclay towards his staff since he joined the Whitehall department in July last year.

One source said there were “a lot of unhappy people at the Department of Health just now”, in part as a result of Barclay’s behaviour. Another said officials in his private office had “borne the brunt” of his behaviour. “Everyone finds him quite challenging,” said a third source.

Two other Whitehall sources alleged that he had regularly “blasted” staff in full view of others in the office. One of these insiders said he was “constantly angry”, which was “very difficult” for officials, who now “don’t want to have meetings with him”. Another source claimed that there were occasions were he “deliberately ignored” staff who tried to talk to him.

A separate source added: “Barclay’s style is very macho … He would say that he’s forensic. But in reality he’s a micro-manager. He hauls people over the coals and is generally a bit unpleasant.”

The BBC – ever the Tory mouthpiece – has run a story based around the government’s denials.

It states,

The Department of Health has not received any formal complaints about the behaviour of Health Secretary Steve Barclay, a spokesman has said.

Someone who has worked with him told the BBC the claims were “totally unsubstantiated and a politically motivated attack”.

Another government official said many colleagues “speak highly” of Mr Barclay and are unhappy about the briefings.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News that his colleague Mr Barclay was “absolutely not” a bully.

(This on its own is probably enough to convince anyone that he is; Cleverly’s relationship with the facts has been put in doubt before, remember.)

Both The Guardian and the BBC reported that the Department of Health had said no official complaints had been received.

But that’s not what the claims in The Guardian had said. It stated that civil servants had informally complained to Chris Wormald, the department’s permanent secretary, about the way they believe they and colleagues have been treated by the Health Secretary.

And it added that the DoH

did not deny being alerted to concerns informally in the way sources described.

This could be a very clever trap set by Guardian journalists for the Tory government.

With the official denials out in the open, civil servants may be encouraged to lodge official complaints, simply from anger at having their privately-raised concerns denied.

So, by refusing to admit the existence of any complaints at all – official or unofficial, the government may have put Steve Barclay on a path to the political dustbin.

Source: Health department officials ‘raised concerns’ about Steve Barclay’s behaviour | Steve Barclay | The Guardian

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Raab’s resignation over bullying is a sign of Sunak’s weakness

Happier times for them: Dominic Raab and Rishi Sunak.

Dominic Raab has resigned as Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, after making Rishi Sunak wait a day for him to do it.

He went with the ill grace that has characterised his ministerial career – blaming anybody else he could find.

An inquiry by Adam Tolley KC investigated eight allegations of bullying against Raab, and found him guilty of two.

He handed his report to prime minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday morning (April 21),

It seems Sunak then sat on it for 24 hours, waiting for Raab to do the right thing and resign.

Downing Street says no pressure was applied to Raab and there is no indication that Sunak ever considered sacking him. Resigning means Raab gets to keep his Ministerial pension, and this means that – in practice – any Tory Cabinet Minister found to have committed misdeeds is given the opportunity to resign. Remember how Priti Patel left Theresa May’s Cabinet?

According to the BBC, the report states that:

on a number of occasions, while meeting with policy officials, Raab “acted in a manner which was intimidating, in the sense of going further than was necessary or appropriate in delivering critical feedback, and also insulting, in the sense of making unconstructive critical comments about the quality of work done (whether or not as a matter of substance any criticism was justified).”

It concludes that while implementing a certain decision in the role “he acted in a way which was intimidating, in the sense of unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct in the context of a work meeting.

“His conduct also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates. He introduced an unwarranted punitive element.”

It looks at his behaviour in meetings with officials as justice secretary, and picks out an example where Raab complained about the absence of “basic information” from officials, about staff “whom he perceived to be resistant to his policies, and described some work as “utterly useless” and “woeful”.

Raab’s “interruptive style” is not in itself intimidating, the report says, but the combination of this with “unconstructive critical feedback is likely to have been experienced as intimidating, in the sense of being unreasonably difficult to deal with”.

It seems Raab had said he would resign if there was any finding of bullying at all and Sunak had simply waited for him to honour his word. Caught between a rock and a hard place – the findings of the report were always going to be publicised and his comments were already public knowledge – it was just a matter of time before Raab went.

But he didn’t go quietly.

Instead, he complained that Mr Tolley had set his standard for bullying at a very low level, meaning his inquiry had “set a dangerous precedent”.

Was this true, though? It seems to me that, if six allegations had been dismissed, then there must at least have been some reasonable basis for the level at which Mr Tolley decided bullying had taken place.

In his resignation letter, Raab made it clear that he did not agree with the findings against him. He said ministers “must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions to senior officials, in order to set the standards and drive the reform the public expect of us.

“In setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent.

“It will encourage spurious complaints against ministers, and have a chilling effect on those driving change on behalf of your government – and ultimately the British people.”

In another part of the letter he said he was “genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice”.

This has been described as a “non-apology” by a person who “advised him at a senior level in a government department”. This person said: “Whilst the letter contains an apology, it’s one of the best examples of a ‘non-apology’ from a minister in recent years. It’s relatively easy to set pace, standards and challenge, it’s much harder to lead effectively to deliver against these objectives.”

This person continued: “Raab’s version of a Secretary of State and Deputy Prime Minister is one that should be learnt from and ultimately consigned to the history books. The level of relief from hard-working civil servants who can now, under new leadership, get on with the challenging and important jobs they signed up to do, is palpable.”

That claim has been borne out by responses to the BBC by civil servants. One said: “I feel relief – just huge relief.”

Another added: “It’s perhaps of note from his letter that he feels there are different, perhaps acceptable thresholds of bullying, which perhaps says all it needs to say about this whole fiasco.”

Sunak himself has stated that there were “shortcomings in the historic process” by which the inquiry was carried out, that have “negatively affected everyone involved”, and “we should learn from this how to better handle such matters in future”.

This is another indication of the prime minister’s personal weakness.

One of his ministers has been found to be a bully, but he’s not about to bring in measures to ensure that nobody else does the same.

Instead, it seems he wants to water down the process to ensure that it can’t make a similar finding against any of his other ministers, even if they deserve it.

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New claim that Dominic Raab is ‘100% a bully’ as inquiry fails to report back

Dominic Raab: I don’t know… does he look to you like the kind of man who could be a bully?

Another civil servant has said Dominic Raab is – not just a bully, but “100 per cent a bully” as an independent inquiry faces condemnation for failing to report back.

This is just an update for us all to enjoy as the screw turns a little tighter on a Deputy Prime Minister who might not have a job for much longer.

Enjoy:

Dominic Raab is “100% a bully”, and also took no steps to intervene in bullying by others, a former Foreign Office official has said in the latest accusations against the justice secretary and former foreign secretary.

The claims, reported by ITV News, came as Rishi Sunak declined to say why an independent inquiry into Raab’s behaviour had not yet reported back after more than four months, or if he would sack Raab if it uncovered misconduct.

The justice secretary, who vehemently denies that he has bullied or intimidated staff, oversaw a toxic atmosphere when in charge of the Foreign Office, the anonymous ex-staffer said, with his office viewed as “a hardship post”.

The official said that in deciding whether or not they believed Raab was a bully, he had looked up the dictionary definition. “I read it as someone that uses their influence to intimidate other people,” he said. “And if that is the definition then he was 100% a bully.”

Officials were “terrified to have interactions with him but also to interact with his office”, he said, adding that he had also witnessed Raab do “absolutely nothing” when a colleague was being bullied by someone else.

“He didn’t step in,” the official said. “One of the most powerful men in the country was condoning it and saying that kind of behaviour was acceptable.”

The joy of this is that, no matter what this “independent” (is it?) inquiry says, interviewers will be able to torture Raab for the rest of his career or life with the fact that the people who worked for him thought he was a really nasty piece of… work.

The sooner the end-of-career retrospectives start coming out, the better.

Source: Dominic Raab is ‘100% a bully’, says former Foreign Office official | Dominic Raab | The Guardian

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Dominic Raab fails to convince he’s not a bully in TV interview

Dominic Raab: look at those eyes, those hands, the set of his face. Could you believe a man like that could be a bully?

This is odd: Dominic Raab appeared on a TV show where he was asked about the bullying allegations against him – but ducked the questions by saying it was improper to discuss them while an inquiry was going on.

Even when talking more broadly about the issue, he was unconvincing.

Here’s Maximilien Robespierre’s appraisal of it:

The points are good; he never even said bullying is unacceptable.

Perhaps, having been appointed on the basis of loyalty to the leader rather than merit, he simply didn’t think he owed it to anybody working for him to have a respectful relationship with them?

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Was Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle just a bid to distract attention from Dominic Raab?

Dominic Raab: he reckons he has never raised his voice in a meeting, and denies all other bullying accusations against him. Do you believe him?

Rishi Sunak has performed a snap reshuffle of his Cabinet, splitting some departments to reflect his priorities (he says).

Good for him. But I have to question some of his decisions and motives.

Look at his new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (which isn’t even a clear explanation of what it is. Net Zero refers to the plan to get the UK down to no carbon dioxide emissions, but that’s not what it says).

The stated aim is “securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation” – but we know that absolutely no work will be required on the last aim because inflation will halve this year in any case. This is just a bid to take credit where it isn’t due.

Then there’s the appointment of nonentity Greg Hands as Tory Party Chairman, tasked with running the local election campaign (among other things). Is this a tacit admission that the Tories have no chance?

And what about the decision to make “30p Lee” Anderson vice-chairman? The apparent homophobe and transphobe who reckoned it was possible to cook a meal for 30p. This is barrel-scraping at its worst.

Check out this analysis from A Different Bias for more insight:

Dominic Raab stays in place as Justice Secretary and Deputy PM.

And Sunak made this decision on the day it was revealed that yet another bullying accusation has been made against Raab.

According to the BBC,

A former senior civil servant who worked closely with Dominic Raab has described his behaviour as “nasty and difficult”.

In an anonymous interview with BBC Newsnight, he accuses the deputy prime minister and justice secretary of using “demeaning tactics to make himself the most powerful person in the room”.

The former civil servant – who has not made a formal complaint against Mr Raab – told the BBC, “I saw him seething at other senior people, hard staring at you, you know like cold fury.

“It was pretty sinister – and raising his voice. He would make examples of very senior members of staff in front of more junior members and vice versa.”

When challenged on whether this was bullying or just a secretary of state being direct and assertive while doing an important job, the person said they had no doubt it was “unacceptable behaviour”.

“No, it’s bullying. I mean, the worst thing is the sort of the cold anger and making people wait in silence.

“Expecting people to turn up very, very quickly without knowing really why they’re there. Treating his private office with contempt and doing so publicly.

“There were long silences, which if you tried to continue speaking he would tell you to wait or stop talking.

“And he would expect everyone to have the answers to all his questions even when he wanted information on topics outside of the knowledge of the people in the room. He would get cross with his private office on these occasions for not ensuring all the right people were in the room”, he said.

Who’s got time for that kind of nonsense?

If anyone told me to sit in a meeting in silence I’d assert that, since nobody had anything to say, I’d get back to my job – and leave.

But that’s just me, I suppose.

The decision to leave Raab in post betrays a serious failure of judgement on Sunak’s part. It suggests that, if Raab is forced out eventually, Sunak may have to go too.

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Five new accusations have been made against Dominic Raab

Dominic Raab: he remains Justice Secretary, despite the fact that the number of accusations against him has almost tripled.

Still he remains in post, though.

With five new accusations, the number of complaints against Dominic Raab – the Justice Secretary, has risen to eight.

He denies allegations of bullying and says he has behaved professionally throughout his time as a government minister.

The three complaints already under investigation related to his time as foreign secretary and Brexit secretary, as well as at the Ministry of Justice.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said the [five new] claims related to Mr Raab’s previous tenure as justice secretary.

Labour’s Keir Starmer has called for Raab’s status as a minister (and a Conservative MP?) to be suspended. That is, after all, what would happen to a Labour Party member.

Senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC is investigating all eight complaints against Raab. He will report to Rishi Sunak, who will make the final decision on whether Raab’s conduct breached the ministerial code and should be sacked.

But we know that Tory prime ministers may abuse this duty. Boris Johnson cleared Priti Patel, despite abundant evidence against her.

And Starmer has already said it was “a consequence of having a weak prime minister” that Raab continues to serve in government while complaints about his behaviour are investigated.

Let us hope that we are told all the information we need to make up our own minds, once judgement is passed.

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Another formal complaint about Dominic Raab is added to official investigation

Dominic Raab: This site once said there was nothing at all behind that vacant smile. Was this inaccurate? Was it hiding a bully?

A third formal complaint about bullying by Dominic Raab has been added to the official investigation, by request of prime minister Rishi Sunak.

It relates to Raab’s behaviour as Brexit secretary in 2018.

Raab denies the allegations and has said he’s looking forward to dealing with the complaints “transparently rather than dealing with anonymous comments in the media”.

But the BBC report of the latest development says the Ministry of Justice, which Raab is now heading, has been “inundated” with complaints of alleged bullying.

These are not being investigated, it seems, because they aren’t “formal” complaints.

Some – like Labour’s Angela Rayner – say restricting the investigation in this way is a “stitch up” that “will fool no one”.

There is an answer to that, which is for everybody who has made informal complaints to formalise them. If they’re worried about further bullying as a result of doing so, perhaps they could group together to form a ‘class action’-style complaint.

Obviously nothing has been proved yet.

But if the allegations are true, then isn’t it in the interests of justice to do everything possible to make sure they are proved?

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How long can Dominic Raab continue to deny bullying as fresh complaints land?

Dominic Raab: he asked for an official investigation into bullying complaints against him – and now increasing numbers of civil servants are making fresh allegations.

He might be innocent, of course.

But that would require us to believe that senior civil servants were running a campaign against Dominic Raab – and that would be a very odd thing for such responsible people to do.

Then again, if they think it’s the best thing to do for the country…

The debate could run on and on.

Here’s the latest development, courtesy of the BBC:

Deputy PM Dominic Raab is facing fresh bullying complaints from senior civil servants across multiple government departments, BBC Newsnight has learned.

A number of Mr Raab’s former private secretaries – senior officials who work most closely with ministers on a daily basis – are preparing to submit formal complaints, sources told the BBC.

There is now a coordinated effort by former private secretaries of Mr Raab to ensure their allegations are heard as part of the investigation.

Mr Raab requested an investigation into his own conduct towards staff in the wake of two earlier complaints.

He denies any allegations of bullying.

The allegations against Raab first emerged earlier this month:

The Guardian has reported that staff in the Justice Department were offered “respite or a route out” amid concerns that some were traumatised by his behaviour during his previous stint:

The Guardian has spoken to multiple sources in the MoJ who claimed that Raab, who first held the post between September 2021 and September 2022, when he was sacked by Liz Truss, had created a “culture of fear” in the department.

They alleged that his behaviour when dealing with civil servants, including some in senior roles, was “demeaning rather than demanding”, that he was “very rude and aggressive” and that he “wasn’t just unprofessional, he was a bully”.

It is also understood that Antonia Romeo, the MoJ permanent secretary, had to speak to Raab when he returned to the department to warn him that he must treat staff professionally and with respect amid unhappiness about his return. One source, who was not in the room at the time, claimed she had “read him the riot act”.

The government has appointed Adam Tolley KC to investigate two formal complaints made about Raab’s conduct.

But final judgement on whether Raab has breached the Ministerial Code will lie with prime minister Rishi Sunak – as it did with Boris Johnson when Priti Patel was accused.

Johnson ignored the evidence and allowed Patel to continue as Home Secretary. Will Sunak show the same corruption?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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Raab and Williamson weren’t the only ones: multiple complaints emerge about bullying in government

Gavin Williamson: he resigned rather than allow bullying accusations against him to be investigated in full view of the public. Now Dominic Raab has also been accused. But how many other government ministers are also presiding over a ‘toxic work culture’?

Civil servants have made complaints about bullying by “several ministers” – not just Dominic Raab and Gavin Williamson – but the current system is not adequate to mount a proper investigation, it has been claimed.

Dave Penman, head of the FDA union that represents civil servants, said he had received multiple complaints about several ministers in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government – but the “toxic work culture” can’t be adequately addressed by current procedures.

As he explains to Sky‘s Kay Burley, he has written to Sunak, calling for reforms to allow proper investigation of complaints against ministers:

As you can tell from the clip, Mr Penman was not interested in bandying around gossip about particular individuals, saying – rightly – that any complaints should be substantiated before they are publicised.

But the allegation is there: bullying is apparently prevalent in not just one or two but several government departments.

After failures by previous prime ministers – notably Boris Johnson, who defended Priti Patel in the face of the evidence – there isn’t even an independent investigator in place.

Sunak will need to be seen to act quickly on this matter.

But will he? Or is this yet another episode in which he’ll prove himself to be weak?

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Even the BBC is publicising Labour’s victimisation of its own members

Yes: this is the only image This Site has of Ian Byrne.

The remarkable aspect of this story is not that Ian Byrne is being victimised by members of his own party, or that he is seeking advice from the police about how to deal with it – This Site and others have already covered those things.

No – the extraordinary part is that the BBC appears to have removed its blinkers and is now prepared to cover it.

The corporation’s article states:

An MP who wants to remain as a Labour candidate at the next election has said he will be “seeking guidance” from police over alleged intimidation.

West Derby MP Ian Byrne tweeted that he faced “shameful” intimidation at an event on Saturday and had blocked those “involved in this appalling behaviour”.

Mr Byrne is being challenged in the race in West Derby by Liverpool councillor Anthony Lavelle and Lancashire councillor Kimberley Whitehead, after losing a series of ballots in his local party.

In a week’s time, members of the constituency Labour Party will choose one of the three to be their candidate.

The process, which started in the summer has been described as “toxic” by Labour members.

Toxic. The fact that this is the word to which party members resort when describing the process imposed on them by their own leadership speaks volumes.

The article then focuses on an alleged incident between supporters of Byrne and those of Lavelle, when events were coincidentally (?) scheduled to take place at neighbouring venues. One has to question how that happened.

Considering the ill-feeling over this matter and the way the Labour leadership seems to be prioritising the other candidates over Byrne, it seems incongruous that this should have happened.

Who was responsible for it?

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