Downing Street faces a looming court challenge over Boris Johnson’s decision to stand by Priti Patel on bullying allegations, in a case set to reignite questions about the government’s stance on standards.
The prime minister was criticised for disregarding the findings of an investigation into the home secretary’s behaviour carried out by his independent ethics adviser last year.
Sir Alex Allan’s report said that Ms Patel’s behaviour – said to include some instances of shouting and swearing – had “been in breach of the ministerial code, even if unintentionally”.
But Mr Johnson decided the home secretary had not broken the ministerial code, said the government considered the matter “closed” and told Conservative MPs to “form a square around the Pritster”.
The FDA union, which represents civil servants, has successfully brought a judicial review of Mr Johnson’s decision – a case which will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday and Thursday next week.
Speaking ahead of the court hearing, Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, said: “The prime minister, as the final arbiter of the ministerial code and minister for the civil service, has a duty to ensure that civil servants can work with ministers without fear of being bullied or harassed.”
The union leader claimed Mr Johnson’s decision “potentially allows ministers to avoid the consequences of their behaviour in future by pleading that it should be the intent of their actions which is important, not the consequences.
“The result is that civil servants’ confidence in challenging unacceptable behaviour from ministers has been fatally damaged … That is why we are asking the court to rule that the prime minister misdirected himself.”
Mr Penman insisted the legal challenge was not an attempt to make the home secretary face sanctions, but about decisions made by the prime minister. “This is simply about how the ministerial code is interpreted.”
It comes as Mr Johnson’s government faces growing pressure over various “sleaze” claims after last week’s failed attempt to rewrite disciplinary rules and and save ex-Tory MP Owen Paterson from suspension.
Lord Evans, chair of the government’s independent standards committee has urged the government to restrict MPs from holding some second jobs.
He said his committee had made recommendations as far as 2018 that MPs should be banned from holding consultancy and advisory jobs.
“We recommended that MPs should not accept any paid work to provide services such as parliamentary strategists, or advisors, or consultants – because that was in tension with the main job,” he said on Thursday.
Mr Johnson insisted that Britain is not “remotely a corrupt country” amid continuing fallout over sleaze concerns. But Labour claimed the PM’s failure to apologise for his role in undermining public trust in politics proved that “he doesn’t care about tackling corruption”.
