Priti Patel’s Third Big Lie

“There must be no bullying and no harassment; no leaking; no breach of collective responsibility. No misuse of taxpayer money and no actual or perceived conflicts of interest. The precious principles of public life enshrined in this document - integrity, objectivity, accountability, transparency, honesty and leadership in the public interest - must be honoured at all times; as must the political impartiality of our much admired civil service”. Thus the foreword to the Ministerial Code. Signed by the Prime Minister.

Priti Patel, who has inexplicably been made Home Secretary, has driven a coach and horses through the first sentence, and may, according to the Independent, have done something similar with the second. Yet she remains in post.

Worse, she has been shown to be an habitual and shameless liar in the process, although here the bar of expectation had already been set at a very low level. Ms Patel lied about whether she had kept her then boss informed as to what she was up to in summer 2017, when it was discovered that she was effectively making up foreign policy on the hoof.

That then boss is now the PM: step forward Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. So he knew she was prone to dishonesty. He would have had a reminder of that last year, when Ms Patel appeared before the inquisition of the host on The Andy Marr Show™ and claimed not to have advocated the return of capital punishment after becoming an MP.

The problem was that she had done just that, and because of the circumstances, rather a lot of people knew it: she took the stance on BBC Question Time, only to find fellow panellist Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye magazine, dismantle her argument in short order.

So that was two significantly sized lies. Now has come a third: Ms Patel’s get-out clause on the bullying allegations is that no-one gave her any feedback, told her that she might be best advised modifying her behaviour. The inquiry led by Alex Allan, who resigned his post after Bozo declined to take any action against his minister, supports this view.

But then Philip Rutnam, who earlier resigned as top civil servant at the Home Office and is now pursuing legal redress over his ousting, revealed that he had not been asked to contribute to the inquiry, and it is clear that, had this happened, the conclusions reached would have been significantly different. Here’s what he said about feedback.

“The advice states that no feedback was given to the Home Secretary and that she was therefore unaware of issues that she might otherwise have addressed. This is not correct. As early as August 2019, the month after her appointment, she was advised that she must not shout and swear at staff. I advised her on a number of occasions between September 2019 and February 2020 about the need to treat staff with respect, and to make changes to protect health, safety and wellbeing”. Thus the third big lie.

All that is now needed is for someone at the Home Office - or any other ministry where Ms Patel has held sway - to pony up audio of her not-really-bullying by shouting and swearing at her staff. Will Philip Rutnam have that ready for his tribunal? Don’t bet against it.

Priti Patel is a bully and a liar. But worst of all, she’s terminally inept. No surprise there.

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