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Gordon Brown UK Government

Media House boss labels Brown bullying allegations "disastrous"

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

February 22, 2010 | 3 min read

Jack Irvine, founder of PR consultancy Media House, discusses bullying allegations against Gordon Brown and the PM's PR operation.

Irvine spoke to The Drum following widespread reports that the National Bullying Helpline had issued guidance to members of the Prime Minister’s staff, with its chief executive Christine Pratt heavily quoted in the press.

The veteran communications expert said that he believed that the allegations would damage the Prime Minister, but that the charity helpline would also be adversely affected.

“I think these allegations will damage him,” Irvine explained to The Drum.

“The whole PR operation behind Brown is disastrous. Piers Morgan’s interview, although it gave him a lift in the polls, in the long-term I don’t think it will have done him much good. I think it was a shockingly bad piece of judgement and this bullying story has confirmed what people have suspected for a long time, which is that he is an ugly individual, possibly a sociopath in many ways.”

Irvine continued to say that he does not believe that Brown is able to relate to the public and cited his predecessor Tony Blair and former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as people who “could engage” with the public.

“Brown looks as though he wants to be somewhere else. This bullying claim is only the latest. There will be more to come in the coming months. At the moment there are endless nails being placed in his coffin and it’s horrendous for him,” he added.

Discussing the effects that the story will have on the helpline itself, Irvine said that he believed that there was a positive in that the issue of bullying in the workplace would be highlighted, and explained that he had experienced the problem himself while working in newspapers, despite his own tenacious image.

“This highlights the fact that bullying goes on in all walks of life, in Government, in Commerce, in Newspapers. That could be the one good thing. But it’s certainly not good for the charity that this woman has spoken directly about it. That’s been handled rather badly. Maybe they should have a clean out of the stables as well and have a look at how they run the helpline, as this has not been a clever move.”

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