Boris Johnson’s top team has been accused of 'patronising' staff by installing push-button ‘happiness survey’ machines in Number 10.
The terminals, most commonly seen just outside airport bathrooms, have reportedly been brought in to monitor morale in Downing Street - which is said to have reached “rock bottom.”
"It is a totally miserable place to work,” one aide told the Times. “And if they need happiness machines to tell them that then it shows how out of touch they are."
And the PM’s former top aide Dominic Cummings said the surveys were “a perfect example of where No10 now is: the most contemptible aspects of HR culture combined with the collapse of leadership and a vacuum of moral courage among senior figures.”
It comes as reports emerged that the first Partygate fines had been handed out by the Metropolitan Police.
Mr Cummings claimed Mr Johnson had “encouraged” media attacks on junior members of staff during the Partygate scandal, “in order to divert the lobby’s attention from him and Carrie breaking the law. Some very senior officials have turned a blind eye.”
No10 and Boris Johnson have so far refused to say laws were broken - despite police saying fines would be issued for Covid law-breaking.
According to the Guido Fawkes website, Downing Street chiefs have also introduced an anonymous message board called “building hurrays”, where staff can pay compliments to colleagues - or to Larry the Cat.
"It is just so patronising," another aide told the Times.
"It's treating people like idiots rather than professionals trying to do a job that can be very difficult and stressful at times."
The Metropolitan Police confirmed this week that 20 fixed penalty notices would be issued over law-breaking gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall during the pandemic.
Downing Street has said it won't name anyone slapped with a fixed penalty notice, unless the Prime Minister or civil service chief Simon Case get a fine.
