The Home Office’s top civil servant has resigned and plans to sue the UK Government after an alleged smear campaign by Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Sir Philip Rutnam said he was standing down after 33 years with the civil service due to a “vicious and orchestrated campaign” against him.
He accused Ms Patel of lying about her involvement in the campaign against him and of creating a climate of fear in her department. His departure led to calls from opposition MPs and the senior public servants’ trade union for Boris Johnson to stop chief adviser Dominic Cummings undermining the civil service.
Sir Philip announced: “I am making this statement now because I will be issuing a claim against the Home Office for constructive dismissal. In the last 10 days I have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign. It has been alleged that I briefed the media against the Home Secretary. This, along with many other claims, is completely false.”
Sir Philip continued: “The Home Secretary categorically denied any involvement in this campaign to the Cabinet Office. I regret I do not believe her. She has not made the effort I would expect to dissociate herself from the comments. Even despite this campaign I was willing to effect a reconciliation with the Home Secretary.
“But despite my efforts to engage with her, Priti Patel has made no effort to engage with me to discuss this. I believe these events give me very strong grounds to claim constructive, unfair dismissal and I will be pursuing that claim in the courts.”
He added: “I have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands. Behaviour that created fear and needed some bravery to call out.”
© Amer Ghazzal/Shutterstock In recent days it has been reported Ms Patel tried to remove Sir Philip from her department. She expressed concern at the “false” claims, while allies described her as “demanding” but not a bully. The government denied claims MI5 chiefs do not trust Ms Patel and were limiting intelligence sharing.
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “The resignation should set alarm bells ringing, not just concerning Priti Patel and her conduct as Home Secretary but how the UK Government is functioning under Boris Johnson and the level of influence Dominic Cummings holds.”
Sir Mark Sedwill, head of the civil service, said he had accepted Sir Philip’s resignation “with great regret”.
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