Alok Sharma denies bullying officials

Former business secretary Sir Alok Sharma has denied having bullied officials during his stint in the government.

Bloomberg reported that four officials had accused the former UN Climate Change Conference president of being “difficult, unpredictable and could quickly lose his temper”.

According to the news agency report, Sharma would often use “profanity” to express his dissatisfaction with his staff’s work, instead of guiding them on how to improve their performance.

Two of the officials reportedly claimed that when was the business secretary, he would often contact his junior staff unexpectedly on Microsoft Teams during the pandemic to criticise their work.

Civil servants are believed to have raised their concerns with their bosses about the Conservative MP, but the government made it clear that there was no record of any complaint about him.

Sharma flatly rejected the allegations, saying he was unaware of any informal complaints about his behaviour.

“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 the government about me. I refute strongly these allegations,” he told Bloomberg.

The report of claims about Sharma’s work culture came days before deputy prime minister Dominic Raab resigned from the government after an independent report found he had bullied officials.

Sharma, who was elected to the Commons for the first time in 2010, became parliamentary under-secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific in 2016. He became secretary of state for international development in 2019 before heading the department of business, energy and industrial strategy for nearly a year till early 2021.

As the president of COP26, he oversaw the UN Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow in the autumn of 2021.