Like the Westminster sex pest stories and the sleaze rows over lobbying, allegations of bullying just seem to keep on coming out of SW1.
Priti Patel was said by the ministerial ethics adviser to have bullied civil servants but was let off by Boris Johnson; John Bercow was found to have bullied Commons clerks; and Gavin Williamson is accused of telling a civil servant to slit their throat and jump out of a window – the common thread is that they were targeting those they considered beneath them.
And it is not a problem confined to the Conservatives. The Labour MP and former minister Liam Byrne was suspended from the Commons for bullying a staff member earlier this year, while Christina Rees, a former shadow Welsh secretary, was stripped of the party whip last month after allegations of bullying her constituency staff.
The latest to stand accused of mistreating civil servants is no less than the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, who is said to have been read the riot act about his behaviour when he returned to the Ministry of Justice.
Some politicos say the high-pressure nature of the job leads to raised tensions and sometimes raised voices. One source close to Raab said he made no apologies for having high standards and expecting “a lot from his team as well as himself”.
The sweary, Malcolm Tucker-esque aide and phone-slinging government ministers have become Westminster archetypes. Some MPs also seem to enjoy the dark arts and quasi-blackmail that seem to come with the whipping system under which politicians are pressured into toeing the line.
But others want to clean up the system, in the same way other modern workplaces have moved towards a more zero-tolerance approach to sexism and harassment among employees. Only last week, two unions told the speaker’s conference on employment of MPs’ staff that many of their members reported being undermined, humiliated and shouted at in public, having doors slammed in the office and being bullied for asking for a pay rise.
The Unite survey returned by 600 parliamentary staff working for MPs found that 25% had experienced or witnessed bullying in the offices of MPs, while a GMB survey found 20% of 68 respondents reported having personally experienced behaviour that may constitute bullying and/or harassment from their MP employer.
The confidential complaints and grievance system set up after Westminster’s pestminster scandal was a start, but it only covers parliament. Party codes of conduct were also beefed up, but these do not provide much independence for civil servants or parliamentary staff wanting to complain.
Complainants from outside parliament can approach the standards commissioner with allegations but often have to clear a high bar for bringing the Commons into disrepute.
So the fact remains the system for complaining about MPs is piecemeal and unclear. Civil servants in particular have very few places to turn if their political bosses are throwing their weight around. More often than not, the solution is to seek a transfer to another department or grin and bear things, waiting until the minister is moved or promoted. For the Ministry of Justice officials who did not enjoy working under Raab the first time, they are simply unlucky he has bounced back.
