Civil Servant in charge of the Home Office resigns and is going to sue for constructive dismissal

[chomalungma]

Sir Phillip Rutnam, Permanent Secretary to the Home Office has resigned.

Claims bullying from Priti Patel of staff in the Home Office, briefings against him - plus other stuff.

The Civil Service looks to be under attack.

He was offered a financial settlement but has decided to speak out.

Just a few weeks after the Chancellor of the Exchequor resigned because he was asked to sack his advisors.

WTF is going on?

They probably want to cut the civil service and outsource it to China or somewhere. All about cost cutting.

He should have resigned a long time ago, he was nowhere to found when Windrush blew up.

I have friend who is very senior in the civil service. Apparently the long term plan is to automate 50% of civil service jobs and outsource the rest abroad. In the next decade there won’t be a civil service left.

Perhaps automated home office officials will be more human than the current ones.

He should have resigned over the implementation of windrush and the ongoing mess that is UK immigration. That goes back decades.

Politicians are well known for bullying Senior Civil servants. They often think they can break the law and the civil servant gets the sack or managed out for trying to stop them or whistleblowing. Windrush and the hostile environment was Teresa Mays pet project and she browbeat the civil service into doing it.

Windrush may have been Mays policy but the implementation was all civil service. Like decades of policy implementation it is inherently racist. Home office civil servants have been a law onto themselves for years.

Hmm I see no ones saying anything about him, you know, actually being bullied and his job made untenable by a Tory Minister.

Poor sod.

Boris and Dom want all ministerial special advisers to work for no. 10, not Departments. Other SpAds are being got rid of. Essentially a White-House style political administration at the top of the civil service, instead of neutral top staff.

I would love to know how many Ministerial Directions have been given in Home Office in the last three years (when officials say This is a bloody stupid idea Minister, and while our job is to serve you, we will only do this if you put in writing that you see insisting on it against official advice). Quite a few, I wager.

Let’s see if the rumours about PP are true, based on what’s he’s alleging it sounds as if she would be bloody awful to work for. So fair play to him for not taking the financial payout and walking away quietly. This way it’s in the public domain and he’s calling it out on behalf of his staff too.
This, and what happened to Sajid Javid, just shows that the current government is full of bullies. So kudos to both men for refusing to put up with it.

Well...the 'vicious and orchestrated campaign' sounds sadly familiar as a former teacher.
Welcome to the club 😭

The Daily Wail goes with the angle that he is a very bad person who should have resigned during Windrush and taken responsibility for that scandal, and that lack of falling on his sword then means whatever he says now doesn't matter. Since he has a good salary then he must be a bad 'un. I guess Civil Servants are responsible for immigration policy according to the DM.

Oh, and adds the DM, "wasn't Priti Patel a cute baby?"

Theres's some juicy detail on the Mirror, specifics of the bullying and poisonous atmosphere in Home Office.

They really have PP as a baby?!

Assuming you aren't joking I don't even know where to start

If the govt are offering "hush money" you can be sure they have something to hide.

The next move will probably be to abolish industrial tribunals before this case gets anywhere near one.

This must be a tricky one for the Tory racists: their instincts will be to side with the government against the bureaucrat, but this will mean siding with a person of minority heritage.

Their heads might just explode, unless the Sun/Mail/Express tells them what to think pdq.

Do we want a politicised Civil Service? Or one that is capable of advising the Government, regardless of the politics of that Government.

Civil Servants are not responsible for policies - but for procedure.

As Sir Humphrey said:

Sir Humphrey: My job is to carry out government policy.Hacker: Even if you think it's wrong?
Sir Humphrey: Well, almost all government policy is wrong, but… frightfully well carried out.

Bernard: If it's our job to carry out government policies, shouldn't we believe in them?

Sir Humphrey: Oh, what an extraordinary idea! I have served 11 governments in the past 30 years. If I'd believed in all their policies, I'd have been passionately committed to keeping out of the Common Market, and passionately committed to joining it. I'd have been utterly convinced of the rightness of nationalising steel and of denationalising it and renationalising it. Capital punishment? I'd have been a fervent retentionist and an ardent abolitionist. I'd have been a Keynesian and a Friedmanite, a grammar school preserver and destroyer, a nationalisation freak and a privatisation maniac, but above all, I would have been a stark-staring raving schizophrenic!

Excellent post @chomalungma

Part of his statement:

“One of my duties as permanent secretary was to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our 35,000 people. This created tension with the home secretary, and I have encouraged her to change her behaviours.

“I have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands – behaviour that created fear and that needed some bravery to call out.

“I know that resigning in this way will have serious implications for me personally – the Cabinet Office offered me a financial settlement that would have avoided this outcome.

“I am aware that there will continue to be briefing against me now I have made this decision, but I am hopeful that at least it may not now be directed towards my colleagues or the department.

“This has been a very difficult decision but I hope that my stand may help in maintaining the quality of government in our country, which includes hundreds of thousands of civil servants, loyally dedicated to delivering this government’s agenda.

Is this from The Thick of It style of management?

Well she sounds delightful. Well done him for taking a stand but it die make you wonder, now he's left, if anyone will be there to protect the staff from her. Sounds like stressful and toxic environment.

My fingers are crossed that the accumulation of years and years of civil service practice will result in Cummings and his cohorts being outwitted as they relax into being carried away by their sense of self-importance. Boris will sacrifice Cummings if Boris feels at all threatened. This 'hands off, Dom will take care of it' position can't last. At least, I hope it can't.