Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

politics explained

How keeping Priti Patel as home secretary could cause Boris Johnson more problems

For how long can bullying allegations continue to hog the political news agenda, asks Sean O'Grady

Wednesday 04 March 2020 18:57 GMT
Comments
The PM backs his minister... for now
The PM backs his minister... for now

It may or may not have been Alastair Campbell who invented what came to be known as “Campbell’s Rule”, but it has come to be received wisdom in journalistic circles. It commonly states (there are variations) that if a media frenzy is still raging after a period of 10 days then the political personality at the centre of it is “toast”. If so, then the home secretary, Priti Patel, still in post after a fortnight of hostile coverage, “should” survive, except that, such is the rich back catalogue of allegations being made against her – all of which she denies – the Campbell calendar keeps getting reset in an almost perpetual fashion.

Patel’s troubles began on 20 February. It was then reported that she had attempted to have the permanent secretary at the Home Office, her most senior civil servant, Sir Philip Rutnam, moved to another job. It was said – and denied by Patel – that there was a “toxic atmosphere” and that she had created an “atmosphere of fear”. There were lurid allegations about bullying, belittling officials in meetings and making unreasonable demands, particularly on the new points-based immigration system. The cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill, was drawn into the saga, the rest of Fleet Street sniffed a good tale with plenty of human interest, and opposition MPs started to call for her sacking. Conveniently, the Patel story fitted nicely into a pattern and growing movement highlighting workplace bullying along with allegations against speaker John Bercow (which he has denied) and the Westminster/Whitehall culture of bullying – a strong “narrative”, as the saying goes.

The story rumbled on, as they do, for a few days. There was a “briefing war”, Tory MPs lined up to support Patel against a supposedly recalcitrant civil service, and Downing Street expressed varying degrees of confidence in her. The Patel/bullying story was starting to lose momentum, overtaken by the flooding and, of course, coronavirus. The public and the press were starting to get distracted.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in