British Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell came under pressure on Sunday to launch a formal investigation into British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s treatment of his staff after an anti-bullying help line revealed it has received several complaints from people working at No. 10 Downing Street.
It follows publication by the Observer newspaper journalist Andrew Rawnsley of hotly disputed allegations about Brown mistreating staff, including assertions that he swore at staff, grabbed them by lapels and shouted at them.
Rawnsley also claimed O’Donnell had warned Brown to change his behavior.
The opposition Conservatives responded to the allegations by suggesting “there may have been a cover up at the heart of government over the prime minister’s behavior.”
The National Anti-bullying Helpline charity went public after the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, flatly denied Rawnsley’s claims, insisting that Brown was simply “demanding,” “emotional” and had “a degree of impatience.”
Christine Pratt, the help line’s director, said: “We are not suggesting he is a bully. What we are saying is there are people in his office working directly with him that have issues and concerns and have contacted our help line. We believe the present statement put out by Lord Mandelson is a nonsense and non-credible.”
She said four staff had contacted the help line, the last one only a few months ago.
“I have personally taken a call from staff in the prime minister’s office, staff who believe they are working in a bullying culture and that it has caused them some stress,” she said.
The claim of routine bullying was backed yesterday by a former senior adviser to Brown at No. 10, who said: “His intense bouts of anger are unremarkable to anyone who has worked closely with him. You just have to put up with this stuff. It is part of the daily experience, almost part of the furniture. He would behave in that way constantly. He suffers from a massive paranoia and an inability to accept blame, yet he runs a blame culture that allows him to blame others. He does not seek to win an argument, he just seeks to bully. If you have not worked closely with him before, it is truly shocking. The more he trusts you, the more he vents.”
The source was sure O’Donnell had been told of staff unhappiness at Brown’s behavior and had raised the issue with the prime minister.
O’Donnell is likely to be grilled about what he knows and did by the House of Commons justice select committee on tomorrow. No. 10 Downing Street had been confident the brooding side of Brown’s complex character would not become an election issue, but it will be disturbed by the help line’s intervention.
The Swindon-based help line was set up in 1997 and insisted yesterday it was not political nor seeking publicity. Conservative Member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe is its patron and it quotes support from Tory leader David Cameron on its Web site.
“Outright denial is just non-credible in today’s age. Over recent months we have had several inquiries from staff within Gordon Brown’s office. Some have downloaded information; some have actually called our help line directly and I have spoken to staff in his office,” Pratt said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS