Former business secretary and COP26 president Alok Sharma has dismissed allegations that he consistently bullied civil servants.
Bloomberg reported allegations from four officials that Sharma, who was a cabinet minister from 2019 to 2022, had shouted and sworn at staff particularly during the Covid pandemic. It quoted one team member saying that Sharma was “difficult, unpredictable and quick to lose his temper”.
Staff claimed to have raised concerns with senior managers about Sharma’s behaviour on at least four occasions in 2020, but no formal complaints were made.
The civil servants alleged that Sharma swore at staff and insulted their work, sometimes making unscheduled Microsoft Teams calls to junior staff who were working remotely to lambast their work.
One of the sources Bloomberg spoke to said they had resorted to antidepressants and mental-health support to cope with working under the minister.
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In response to the reports, Sharma told Bloomberg: “I have never been made aware of any ‘informal complaints’ or otherwise from staff. The Cabinet Office has confirmed that there are no records of any informal or formal complaints across government about me. I refute strongly these allegations.
“I have worked with hundreds of officials as a government minister and always felt I maintained a good relationship with them, exemplified by seven of my [Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] private office team, those officials working most closely with me, choosing to join my [COP26] private office alongside those I had worked with in previous ministerial roles.”
A government spokesperson said: “We have no records of any complaints.”
The allegations against Sharma surfaced as a report into alleged bullying by cabinet minister Dominic Raab is awaited, leaving prime minister Rishi Sunak with a decision to make about the justice secretary and deputy prime minister’s future.
Last month the PCS union said Sunak’s failure to suspend Raab while his behaviour was investigated had contributed to a “collapse in morale” in the civil service.
When formal complaints against the deputy prime minister came to light last year, Rishi Sunak had yet to appoint an independent adviser on ministers’ interests and had to appoint an external investigator.
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In April 2020 then home secretary Priti Patel was taken to an employment tribunal after senior civil servant Sir Philip Rutnam claimed he was constructively dismissed from his role. This stemmed from his having accused the home secretary of bullying behaviour. The case was dropped in March 2021 when Rutnam accepted a payout of £340,000 plus legal costs.
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