Helpline patron resigns over Downing Street calls

London: Callers to the National Bullying Helpline (NBH) are promised, ‘Your call is confidential to us and you will be treated with dignity and respect at all times'.

However the disclosure by the helpline's founder that "three or four" Downing Street staff had phoned for advice led one patron of the charity, Professor Cary Cooper, to resign Tuesday. 

Christine Pratt, who set up the hotline in 2003, apparently after being a victim of workplace bullying herself, said she decided to go public when she heard Peter Mandelson tell the Andrew Marr show on Monday that Gordon Brown was not a bully. The denial was in response to the publication by the Observer journalist Andrew Rawnsley of allegations about the prime minister mistreating staff, including assertions that he swore at staff, grabbed them by lapels and shouted at them.

"I sent an e-mail to my local radio station saying that I had seen Lord Mandelson saying that there was no bullying going on, and that, as far as I was concerned, this was not the way for an employer to respond," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Pratt said none of the calls referred to claims of bullying by the prime minister himself.

Setting an example

"Absolutely not, and nor have we said that Gordon Brown is a bully. Our concern here is the public statement from No 10 of denial ... we would just want Gordon Brown and No 10 to lead by example.

"We would have hoped that Gordon Brown would have said that he was looking into this, that due process was being followed, and that he takes these issues seriously," she said.

Pratt said the inquiries from the prime minister's office had come in the form of telephone calls, e-mails and visits to the helpline website. Some she was able to verify by their e-mail address and, in one case, she returned a phone call.

However, she has been criticised by two NBH patrons for disclosing the contact from No 10 staff.

Just before he handed in his resignation, Cooper, who is a professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University management school, said: "I do not think that was very wise. It is supposed to be a confidential helpline."

Another patron, Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, said it was crucial to respect callers' anonymity. "I wish she hadn't done it," she said. "It's very easy to imagine Downing Street now looking at the computer to see who is on the website. It's like a priest in the confessional. You don't do it."

She said Pratt had never mentioned before that there had been calls from Downing Street staff, and questioned how she knew they were genuine.