Friday, December 11, 2020
Blundering Boris Johnson faces legal challenge over Home Secretary
Having blundered into a one-on-one dinner with the European President unprepared, dressed like an old Etonian scarecrow and with nothing but his threadbare and unconvincing wit to fall back on, Boris Johnson has returned to London to face a challenge of a different sort.
According to the Guardian a legal challenge has been launched against the Prime Minister’s decision to clear Priti Patel of bullying despite advice that she had breached the ministerial code.
The paper says that lawyers for the FDA union have sent a pre-action notice to Downing Street accusing the prime minister of acting unlawfully when he chose to stand by his home secretary and overrule his independent adviser:
The letter, first reported in the Times, accuses Johnson of “setting a damaging precedent which gives carte blanche to the kind of unacceptable conduct which the home secretary was found to have committed”.
The union hopes the letter is the first step towards a judicial review of Johnson’s decision. The government has so far refused to make public the full Cabinet Office investigation led by Sir Alex Allan, which concluded that Patel’s actions amounted to bullying.
The government is expected to fight any legal challenge against Johnson’s decision.
The move comes after Jonathan Evans, the chair of the committee for standards in public life, launched a review of probity rules, which will include the ministerial code.
Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, told the Guardian: “The prime minister’s decision has laid bare the inadequacies of the ministerial code as a mechanism for dealing with the conduct of ministers when it comes to their civil servants. The code provides no commitments or rights to the civil servants who were bullied by the home secretary nor any mechanism for challenge.
“Unless this perverse decision by the prime minister, ignoring the evidence provided to him, can be challenged in the courts, it essentially deprives civil servants of the very protection against ministerial misconduct which the code is meant to ensure.”
Allan resigned last month after Johnson reportedly tried to persuade him to tone down the report.
Johnson is a man who has lived his entire life as if the rules do not apply to him, an attitude he is now applying to the Uk in its talks with the EU. It will be a refreshing change if that misconception finally catches up with him in this instance.
According to the Guardian a legal challenge has been launched against the Prime Minister’s decision to clear Priti Patel of bullying despite advice that she had breached the ministerial code.
The paper says that lawyers for the FDA union have sent a pre-action notice to Downing Street accusing the prime minister of acting unlawfully when he chose to stand by his home secretary and overrule his independent adviser:
The letter, first reported in the Times, accuses Johnson of “setting a damaging precedent which gives carte blanche to the kind of unacceptable conduct which the home secretary was found to have committed”.
The union hopes the letter is the first step towards a judicial review of Johnson’s decision. The government has so far refused to make public the full Cabinet Office investigation led by Sir Alex Allan, which concluded that Patel’s actions amounted to bullying.
The government is expected to fight any legal challenge against Johnson’s decision.
The move comes after Jonathan Evans, the chair of the committee for standards in public life, launched a review of probity rules, which will include the ministerial code.
Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, told the Guardian: “The prime minister’s decision has laid bare the inadequacies of the ministerial code as a mechanism for dealing with the conduct of ministers when it comes to their civil servants. The code provides no commitments or rights to the civil servants who were bullied by the home secretary nor any mechanism for challenge.
“Unless this perverse decision by the prime minister, ignoring the evidence provided to him, can be challenged in the courts, it essentially deprives civil servants of the very protection against ministerial misconduct which the code is meant to ensure.”
Allan resigned last month after Johnson reportedly tried to persuade him to tone down the report.
Johnson is a man who has lived his entire life as if the rules do not apply to him, an attitude he is now applying to the Uk in its talks with the EU. It will be a refreshing change if that misconception finally catches up with him in this instance.
