National Bullying Helpline head shops Brown on bullying allegations. Kind of. Maybe...

In addition to the earlier discussion on Debate is Free this morning with the lovely Alison Thewliss there seems to be movement on the Brown bullying debacle tonight. Today Christine Pratt the Head for the National Bullying Helpline gave a statement saying that they had recieved calls from staff who worked in Downing street and although the charity was careful not to blame Brown directly. There were "problems in his department" and that inferring that the allegations was a nonsense was damaging to staff. Christine Pratt said: “Over recent months we have had several inquiries from staff within Gordon Brown's office. "Some have downloaded information; some have actually called our helpline directly and I have spoken to staff in his office."

Downing Street offered a very curt reply saying that the NBH had never contacted them about bullying and that the Civil Service had a zero tolerance approach to bullying. Not much change there then and the denials have echoes of when Brown was asked at PMQs by Tory MP Stephen Crabb about throwing printers around and bullying staff in May last year.

The National Bullying Helpline has come under some scrutiny after making the statement with it being accused of bias having a Tory patron and a number of other Tory figures in its ranks. It would seem the backlash has already begun for the NBH with a fellow charity Bullying UK calling the National Bullying Helpline's actions "disgusting".

The question is how long can this go on? With Gordon Brown being accused of having volcanic rages, screaming and swearing at staff and being borderline violent is that someone you want to throw into a hostile negotiation environment?


If the Prime Minister is doing half of what he is being accused of is the job now getting to him? And would it be kinder for him to step aside?