It's always the ones you least expect, isn't it? Dominic Rob, deputy prime minister in the cursed time line of which we live, stands accused of bullying.

Not by one civil servant, not by three, not by five, not by ten, not by fifteen, not by twenty, but by twenty-four civil servants.

Twenty-four complaints, twenty-four complaints by twenty-four different individuals about the conduct of the man who is now deputy prime minister of this nation.

Now of course, anyone should be presumed innocent until they are found guilty and inquiry has been set up into these allegations which Dominic Rob strenuously denies.

However, I think it should be made very clear that it is tremendously unlucky, unfortunate to say the least.

For one minister to stand accused of bullying by two dozen different civil servants, that is quite an achievement, quite the record indeed.

Indeed, apparently according to the Times newspaper, the heads of all three government departments run by Dominic Rob repeatedly warned him about his treatment of staff.

So that's the department for exiting the European Union, the foreign office and the Ministry of Justice informally warning him about how his behavior was impacting junior civil servants.

Allegedly, and these are all allegations of course, these warnings have no meaningful impact on his behavior.

He is alleged to have belittled staff repeatedly making unreasonable demands that left some suffering mental health crisis and to be clear there is nothing funny about these allegations, they are very serious indeed.

Apparently, these allegations led to people being physically sick before meetings with Dominic Rob being regularly reduced to tears and even being left feeling suicidal.

The idea that it is acceptable to be in a workplace where someone behaves in such a way as the leaf people throwing up, crying and being less suicidal is absolutely diabolical.

The former head of the foreign office, Sir Simon Donald last November, was asked by Andrew Marr, former BBC presenter, now at LBC.

If he felt that the characterization of Dominic Rob is someone who could bully and around whom bullying happened was plausible and he said yes.

I think it's important to just make that point because it is rare indeed for civil servants, Mandarin as it often called, because in fact people talk about Mandarin speak where civil servants,

even when they speak publicly do so in very restrained terms, even when they finished their jobs.

Now, let's listen to our Prime Minister for now, Rishi Senak, who was asked if he knew about informal complaints about Rob's behavior before he was appointed.

Were there any concerns, even informal ones, raised with you about the conduct of Dominic Rob before you appointed him as your deputy?

No, I've been very clear, I don't recognise the characterization of Dominic's behaviour and I also was not and I'm not aware of any formal complaints.

Yes, but if there are any informal.

No, there's a formal complaints process and that's the important thing that people should avail themselves of if they have to.

Did anyone or any documents raise any concerns about his behaviour at all?

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