Priti vacant
‘Contain, delay, research and mitigate’. That’s the government’s strategy for dealing with coronavirus. But could it also end up being Boris Johnson’s approach to the growing and urgent problem of allegations of Priti Patel’s bullying?
Today, we saw the contain phase in full flow as the PM stood by his home secretary, literally and metaphorically. “I’m sticking by her,” he told Labour’s Matt Pennycook. She was doing “an outstanding job and I have every confidence in her”, he told Jeremy Corbyn. Handwashing may be his favourite activity right now, but Johnson was not going to turn Pontius Pilate in his dealings with an early disciple of the Vote Leave faith.
Yet as each day passes, it seems that Patel is a superspreader when it comes to bullying allegations. The problem first emerged in the Home Office but outbreaks have since been identified in DfID and DWP. For all the PM’s efforts at containment, the next phase of delay looks nearly upon us.
With more claims mounting up (today Corbyn’s spokesman said civil servants in the Home Office and ‘other departments’ had been in touch with new allegations), Johnson has tried to buy some time by agreeing to a Cabinet Office inquiry. As Patel has not been suspended and remains in post, it feels like a key way to take the heat of the situation and put off a day of reckoning.
Some MPs whisper that if only Patel can hang on to the Easter recess just four weeks away, the world will move on in the meantime. Some even suggest Patel may well be granted some extra new cash in the Budget to help her hit that target of 20,000 more police officers that’s such a central Tory election pledge (even though it is simply replacing those lost since 2010).
But the delay can shift seamlessly into the ‘research’ phase of the Cabinet Office inquiry itself. Don’t forget that the probe into Damian Green started on November 1 and its outcome emerged seven weeks later. And the claims against Patel are even more thorny and legally fraught than those Green had to face. Johnson confirmed for the first time today that Sir Alex Allan, the semi-autonomous adviser on the ministerial code, would be investigating.
Given that former permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam has decided not to be bought off with a payoff, as many staff are forced to do in these circumstances, there is however the parallel process of an industrial tribunal, at which Patel will be called to give evidence on oath. That could be politically very embarrassing indeed, especially if special advisers and No.10 are dragged into it.
Which is why ‘mitigate’ may end up being the phase that Johnson least likes but may slowly accept as inevitable. Will Patel be allowed to resign, with glowing testimonies, to fight the tribunal? Johnson will almost certainly offer a route back to high office (though it seems he does that to every minister he sacks). It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that she could return to the Home Office if cleared by the public court.
The PM and others in No10 are determined not to see their plans stymied by what they see as ‘No Minister’ civil servants. It’s true that the real factor that may ensure Patel never returns is her competence. The stories coming out of Whitehall about basic errors and off-the-wall plans don’t bode well for her political future.
Yet ultimately it’s the PM who knows the buck stops with him on much of this. He is the one who approved what many felt was an administrative nightmare in fast-tracking the points-based immigration system to the end of this year (rather than the end of 2022 as May planned). He is the one who wanted tough action of the deportation flight. And he is the one who gave Patel one of the most important jobs in the land, despite her record elsewhere.
Mitigating his way out of that may prove harder than tackling Covid-19.
Quote Of The Day
“I loathe bullying”
Boris Johnson
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What I’m Reading
JoeMomentum And How Biden Is Winning – New York Times
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