‘I won’t say sorry to mayor of Cambridgeshire after toxic culture’ says council leader

A council leader has refused to apologise to the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr Nik Johnson, for saying she believed he had “failed at being a decent human being” and may have breached “the Hippocratic oath”.

Cllr Anna Bailey, Conservative leader at East Cambridgeshire District Council, was found by an independent panel at the Combined Authority to have broken the code of conduct with regards to incivility for her comments. And she was asked to “consider” making an apology.

Cllr Bailey made the statement that led to the mayor’s complaint against her following a code of conduct investigation into Dr Johnson in 2023, which found that he had failed to take action amid allegations of bullying and a toxic culture at the Combined Authority.

However, Cllr Bailey was cleared of breaching confidentiality rules after revealing the cost of pay-outs to staff and recruitment costs for new staff after the senior team at the authority left. She was also cleared of bullying and harassment and of bringing the organisation into disrepute.

The report said that the panel decided, by a majority vote, that Cllr Bailey’s comments had breached the code on civility grounds.

It said: “Her comments about the mayor, in bringing in reference to his profession and questioning whether he had failed to comply with the Hippocratic oath, amounted to unreasonable and excessive personal abuse and were not justified political expression.”

After the hearing, Cllr Bailey said: “I am really pleased to have been cleared of multiple complaints against me by the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr Nik Johnson, which he made in November 2023, following a breach of the code of conduct by him when he was found to have condoned the toxic and bullying culture in his office.

“The mayor’s complaint was about a statement that I put out at the time, detailing some of the truly shocking events that had taken place under his leadership, which cost taxpayers some £1.1m in clearing up the mess. That figure has now risen significantly.”

The code of conduct panel’s report explained that Dr Johnson had made his formal complaints after Cllr Bailey made a series of statements on social media in November 2023.

He complained that they were “disrespectful and/or included information that should have remained confidential”.

The comments by Cllr Bailey made reference to “multiple codes of conduct complaints against the mayor” and noted that “some staff, including senior staff, were issued with personal protection and security equipment”.

She reported that the authority had funded “psychiatric counselling for some staff” and that “a junior member of staff was instructed not to be in the office alone with the mayor”.

Cllr Bailey had added: “The costs to date, arising directly from the conduct of the mayor and his office, total just under £1.1m.”

In her comments, she argued that “for a qualified and practising doctor, there is an overriding promise to do no harm. Mayor Nik Johnson has failed the people involved, he has failed the public, he has breached the code of conduct and, I would have thought, the Hippocratic oath. He has certainly failed at being a decent human being.”

A report from the code of conduct panel looking into these comments stated that Cllr Bailey had “highlighted issues which had been brought to her attention by employees of the Combined Authority over a number of years”. It added: “She stated that there had been a toxic and bullying culture in the mayor’s office and this had a severe and ongoing impact on a number of now former employees.

“She stated that it was the severity of this which was material to her comments and why they were not unreasonable or excessive.”

She provided evidence in the form of a statement from a former employee, which she said ‘showed the impact of the mayor’s behaviour and explained her comments’.”

The panel unanimously accepted the findings of the investigating officer that Cllr Bailey’s comments had not amounted to bullying and had not brought the authority into disrepute.

The panel also unanimously disagreed with the views of the investigating officer that Cllr Bailey’s statement disclosed confidential information in breach of paragraph 5 of the code. The panel believed that the information disclosed by Cllr Bailey “was not confidential, as she had not disclosed any details of individuals but merely of headings of expenditure and measures taken by the Combined Authority”.

Cllr Bailey said after the panel’s decision: “When an organisation has to resort to buying CCTV and personal alarms to safeguard staff and their families, and to paying for psychiatric counselling for members of staff, when special arrangements are made so staff do not have to be alone in the office with the mayor, and when hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in staff settlements has to be spent then it is patently obvious that something has gone very badly wrong.

“Three of the people affected, all women, have been brave enough to share their stories with me, and I am hugely grateful for their trust.

“The treatment of staff has been truly shocking. The effects have been profound. I have tried in my own way to help and support those affected and I hope they have drawn some comfort that someone at the organisation cares.”

The panel invited Cllr Bailey to consider making an apology for incivility towards the mayor. She has declined to apologise.

Cllr Bailey said: “I cannot get away from the feeling that I would be letting down the people that have trusted me with their stories of what happened to them at the CPCA and for that reason I find I cannot make an apology.”

Dr Johnson, who has announced he will not stand for re-election, told the Cambridge Independent: “I am very grateful for the kind and considerate messages received since announcing my decision to stand down at the end of this mayoral term. Amongst the rough and tumble of politics it is reassuring to know that people recognise and appreciate the huge progress the CPCA has made, not least in these last few years, and nowhere more so than in Friday’s confirmation of franchising for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s bus services.

“As for Cllr Bailey’s reaction, I will not miss this particular brand of unpleasantness.

“And though disappointing, I am not surprised by Anna’s refusal to apologise for being found in breach of the members’ code of conduct when asked to do so by the independent panel and would urge her to hold the disciplinary process in higher regard. Leadership is about embracing responsibility, not rejecting accountability – whether or not Cllr Bailey is willing to reconsider is up to her.”