Priti Patel is hit by new ‘bullying’ claims as immigration boss quits his role after ‘major run-ins’ with the Home Secretary
- Immigration boss Mark Thomson reportedly quit over run-ins with Ms Patel
- Thomson prompted to resign from his role following ‘uncomfortable’ demands
- It comes as Ms Patel already accused of belittling Home Office civil servants
Priti Patel has been hit with new ‘bullying’ claims as it emerges an immigration boss quit over ‘major run-ins’ with the Home Secretary.
It comes as Ms Patel had already been accused of belittling Home Office civil servants.
According to Union sources, the director general of UK Visas and Immigration and HM Passport Office Mark Thomson was prompted to resign from his role following ‘uncomfortable’ demands by the Home Secretary.
Director general of UK Visas and Immigration and HM Passport Office Mark Thomson (pictured) was prompted to resign from his role following ‘uncomfortable’ demands by the Home Secretary
Priti Patel has been hit with new ‘bullying’ claims as it emerges an immigration boss quit over ‘major run-ins’ with the Home Secretary
Mick Jones of the Public and Commercial Services Union told the Guardian: ‘He’s indicated to our reps that it was mainly because they had had major run-ins.
‘It was clear that [Patel] had come in and was trying to do things that they [Home Office officials] just weren’t comfortable with and [Thomson] sort of said ‘I’m off then’.’
According to the publication, Thomson told colleagues he was leaving his position one month after Ms Patel started as Home Secretary.
It comes following a report in The Times containing claims of ‘bullying’ by the Home Secretary which span a five year period and relate to her previous ministerial roles at the Department for Work and Pensions and then the Department for International Development.
Former ministers and officials alleged that she had ‘dressed down’ staff in front of their colleagues and asked: ‘Why is everyone so f***ing useless?’
It was also claimed that she had sent ‘aggressive’ emails to staff in the ‘middle of the night’.
Sir Philip Rutnam, permanent secretary at the Home Office, is facing a backlash over his handling of the Windrush scandal
Ms Patel is said to have tried to move him out of the department after they clashed over her attempts to make changes under Boris Johnson’s leadership
Ms Patel’s allies have vehemently denied the bullying accusations and claimed the Home Secretary was the victim of ‘malicious gossip’.
Meanwhile, a top civil servant who Priti Patel tried to get rid of is facing a furious backlash amid claims he ‘obstructed’ successive home secretaries.
Ms Patel is said to have tried to move permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam out of the department after they clashed over her attempts to make changes under Boris Johnson’s leadership.
Sir Philip previously faced calls for him to resign in 2018 over the Home Office’s handling of the Windrush scandal.
Now former Home Office insiders have accused the mandarin of being ‘nowhere to be seen’ during the crisis despite being ‘paid more than the prime minister’.
Who is Priti Patel, the Home Secretary who made a shock return to the government after Boris Johnson won power?
Priti Patel was brought back in to the heart of Government by Boris Johnson last July, less than two years after quitting the Cabinet in disgrace.
The daughter of Gujarati Ugandan Asians, she picked up her Tory values and work ethic from her parents.
The right-winger and vocal Brexiteer’s maternal family was originally from Gujarat in India, before moving to Uganda in the early 20th century and prospered in business.
They moved to the UK in the 1960s, before the East African nation’s 80,000 Asian community were expelled by the murderous dictator Idi Amin in 1972.
Priti Patel is pictured as a baby with her mother Anjana, who along with her father Sushil initially lodged in one small room in North London while he completed his studies in engineering
Her parents, Sushil and Anjana, initially lodged in one small room in North London while he completed his studies in engineering.
Eventually, they were able to buy a small house in Harrow and used that to secure a bank loan for their first shop, a newsagent in Tottenham.
Priti and her younger sister and brother were frequently called upon to work alongside their parents in the several shops and sub-post offices they ran in Nottingham, Ipswich and Norwich.
When Priti became secondary school age, the family bought an upmarket chocolate shop in Hertfordshire where there were good state schools, including Watford Grammar where she was head girl.
She later got a degree in economics, sociology and social anthropology at Keele University and a post-graduate diploma in government and politics at Essex.