Tories rocked by new 'bullying' storm as MP Lucy Allan accused of 'vicious' abuse of sick staff member

A new bullying row hit the Conservative Party today after one of its MPs was accused of “vicious” verbal abuse against members of her own staff.

In phone calls heard by the Standard, Lucy Allan rants at a female staffer on sick leave — describing her absence as “pathetic”, telling her she “pissed around on my life” and accusing her of having an “alcohol problem”.

The MP for Telford threatens to sack the young woman if she takes four weeks off, as advised by her doctor.
She tells her: “I’m not paying you for that then. It’s ridiculous.”

Ms Allan, 51, says that if her staffer resigns she will supply a reference.


'Bullying' storm: Tory Lucy Allan

She is also said to have erupted at another staff member who soothed an angry constituent after the MP allegedly cancelled a surgery to go to Royal Ascot.

The revelations about her behaviour come as the Tories reel from a scandal in which activist Elliott Johnson, 21, committed suicide, claiming fellow Tory Mark Clarke, 38, was bullying him. Mr Clarke denies the allegations.
Though the cases are not connected, both raise questions about whether the Conservative Party should do more to react to bullying complaints.

Ex-members of Ms Allan’s staff have exclusively told the Standard at least two protests about her aggressive conduct were made to party HQ but claim neither was properly acted upon.

One came after the death of Elliott, whose father has since said the party has a “culture of bullying”.

Tory bosses today insisted they dealt with complaints about Ms Allan properly.

Ms Allan’s alleged bullying target Arianne Plumbly first became involved with the MP’s campaign as a volunteer before the general election in September 2014, eventually joining her staff.

Ms Plumbly, 26, managed constituency case work after the election but claims the MP turned on her.

She said the relationship descended into a series of bruising confrontations and she had to be signed off work by a doctor.

In a call heard by the Standard, Ms Allan flies into a rage at the staffer, telling her repeatedly to “shut up” as she learns that Ms Plumbly has been signed off.

In a mocking, child-like voice, the MP mimics her employee, saying: “’I’ve got nausea’ — you don’t not turn up for nausea. What planet are you on?”

She adds: “By the way, if you think you can go to some sort of tribunal you’ve got to think about your benefits here Arianne.”

When the staffer says she doesn’t want benefits, Ms Allan shouts: “Then work, you silly girl.”

After hearing a doctor has signed her off with stress for four weeks, Ms Allan screams at her: “Who do you think you are? You are on a temporary contract. You are not protected by the law. You do not have 12 months’ service.

“What are you playing at? If you sign yourself off sick for four [weeks] the only option will be to dismiss you.”

In a string of voice messages the MP previously left on Ms Plumbly’s phone, Ms Allan implies the staffer has taken a computer from the office without permission and suggests she has an “alcohol problem”.

Ms Plumbly, who formerly worked for the Walt Disney Company, denies both of the accusations, adding that she does not drink.

On her time with the MP, she told the Standard today: “It’s all about trying to beat you down. It was a nasty environment to work in.”

She claims that at the time of the whole affair she felt that she was “left to deal with it on my own”, despite trying to contact the party and parliamentary authorities.

When the Tatler Tory scandal involving Mark Clarke broke, she went back to Conservative Campaign headquarters to try to inform them of Ms Allan’s behaviour.

She said: “There was no sympathy or anything. I don’t think they dealt with it at all. I’m really disappointed.”

In a written response to the Standard, Ms Allan said: “Arianne Plumbly was dismissed from her employment with Lucy Allan, MP in Telford, after four months’ employment, for gross misconduct following misuse of the Parliamentary email system, persistent unauthorised absenteeism, refusal to follow a reasonable instruction and rudeness to residents.”

Another former staffer claimed to have challenged Ms Allan over her behaviour — but then later became a target.

That ex-worker said one such tirade occurred when Ms Allan’s team tried to deal with the fall-out from the MP demanding that constituents’ appointments be rearranged so she could go to Royal Ascot.

The former staffer said: “When I see her in the paper talking about apprentices and young people it’s amazing, because this was a person who bullies people. It’s vicious — she demoralises them.

“I’m self-assured and it didn’t knock my confidence. I know how good I am at doing my job.
"But I definitely went away and thought, ‘If this is politics I don’t want it, this feels awful’.

“For it to do that to me, I can’t imagine how younger people would feel.”

The employee also told of phoning the party to complain but by the time messages were answered the individual just “wanted to be away from it”.

A third ex-worker for the MP, Katie Woodland, joined the Tories after being inspired by David Cameron’s decision to legalise same-sex marriage. The RAF veteran’s daughter, who runs her own Telford business, was Ms Allan’s campaign manager before Ms Plumbly joined and claims CCHQ knew about the MP’s behaviour.

Ms Woodland, 32, said: “She would scream, shout, throw her toys out of the pram, have a full-on two-year-old’s tantrum.

“You couldn’t have a conversation with her. She’d stand, fists clenched and barrage you with viciousness.
“If you are looking at a definition of bullying, she ticks all the boxes.”

The campaigner said she put her “life on hold” to help in the election but “fell out of love with the campaign” because of Ms Allan’s behaviour.

She said she did receive support from CCHQ insofar as they gave her opportunities to escape the office when things were particularly bad.

A party official also spoke to Ms Allan, although things would then continue as before after a brief respite, she added.
Ms Woodland said her complaints should have been followed up with stronger action, with senior figures telling the MP she would not remain a candidate if things did not change.

She added: “They knew this back history and have never put anything in place going forward. That is their failing.”

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tories-rocked-by-new-bullying-storm-as-mp-lucy-allan-accused-of-vicious-abuse-of-sick-staff-member-a3139526.html

This woman is a really nasty piece of work, she edited a post from one of her constituents to make it look as if he had threatened her.

She should be sacked, it's obvious she is a bully....I despise bullies.

Why did she repeatedly harangue Ms Plumbly by phone if the agreed method was to text?
And the casual way she brought in theft and alcohol was an obvious slur designed to intimidate the employee.
Her tone was threatening, something she has obviously gotten away with in the past, I'm glad she's been outed.

I think it was obvious that she was manipulative from the way she altered her constituents post and then told the press she was receiving death threats:

Lucy Allan's previous controversies
A “misleading” death threat:
After the vote on Syria air strikes, Ms Allan tweeted that she had received online abuse including a death threat. She posted an image of an email “from Rusty from Dawley” that ended with the line, “in which case there is no hope. Unless you die”. However, the real Rusty — the son of a local Labour councillor — came forward to say the words “Unless you die” had been added to an email he had sent her which had in fact ended: “Think about it yeah?”
As the story was taken up, Ms Allan deleted her original tweet and said the death threat had arrived in a different email and that she had put them together as “examples of the type of unacceptable online abuse that comes in most days”.
She admitted her tweet “created a misleading impression” but went on: “However, it emphatically does not amount to my having invented fake death threats... to claim that I did is wholly false. In reporting what I can only believe was a genuine death threat... I believe I have acted responsibly and within my duties as an MP and my rights as a citizen.”
 
A deleted Facebook post:
On Monday night, Ms Allan “named and shamed” on Facebook local politicians who she accused of “bully boy tactics” to oust her, including the father of “Rusty”. “I have been hounded for the last two and half years with smears, fear, lies, threats, slurs and abuse; maybe I was fair game, a happy friendly female who wanted nothing but the best for Telford.” She claimed “these public officials invented a disgusting slur that somehow I faked a death threat”.
She also uploaded a video blaming her problems on opponents “unhappy they didn’t get the MP they wanted, frustrated they didn’t get the government they wanted”. She later deleted the post and the video.

Shocking, absolutely shocking.

The video gives the voicemails she leaves in full.  Just disgusting.

'Victims of Tory bully MP Lucy Allan were warned not to speak out'

The father of Elliott Johnson today accused the Tories of “trying to gag” the women who spoke out about alleged bullying at the hands of Lucy Allan MP.


Ray Johnson, whose son committed suicide after claiming he was threatened by ‘Tatler Tory’ Mark Clarke, said messages sent to the women show the party wants to “cover up” bullying.

It comes after the Standard exposed calls made by Allan to Arianne Plumbly, in which the MP describes her young staffer’s sick leave as “pathetic”, told her she had “pissed all over my life” and even accused her of having an “alcohol problem”.

Both Ms Plumbly and Katie Woodland, another former staffer whose claims shone a light on Allan’s behaviour, received calls warning them against speaking out.

Ms Woodland has now also received a letter from her Conservative association, telling her she faces enforcement action - she claimed today it would put off other whistleblowers coming forward.

Mr Johnson said: “It is further evidence that the Conservatives have no interest in getting to the truth of the bullying scandal, they want to cover it up.

“The girls’ evidence is in the public interest, instead they appear to be trying to gag them.”

He added: “This girl [Arianne] was signed off by her doctor.
"You can’t have an MP yelling at her like that.
"It’s horrendous.”

Both Ms Woodland and Ms Plumbly received voice messages from Allan before the Standard went to print this week, telling them confidentiality agreements would “be enforced”.

Ms Woodland also received a letter from Telford Conservative Association last night telling her “your confidentiality agreement will be enforced”.

The 32-year-old daughter of an RAF veteran who runs her own Telford business, said today: “I was really disappointed to find out that when given the opportunity to investigate something which is quite serious - first it was ineffectively dealt with, and now they are trying to stop us speaking out.

“It is difficult enough having the courage to talk out about things like this, you think no one will believe you.

“Neither Arianne, nor I could let someone else go through what we did, and the party should be grateful there are whistleblowers and I hope others are able to draw some strength from this situation.”

Both women have said complaints they made to the Conservatives were not dealt with effectively.

http://linkis.com/www.standard.co.uk/n/7TUnO

It appears they have learnt nothing from Elliott Johnson committing suicide. 

Absolutely disgusting.

This is an employment issue, which should be covered by the employment laws. If someone left her employment and claimed constructive dismissal, they might have a case.

This is a Conservative Party issue, as well as an employment issue.  The Conservative Party look into wrongdoing by their representatives, as do all other parties and in this case the problem is not just the bullying of the girls, but the fact she changed a constituents post to make it look as if he was sending death threats to her, then went to the Press with it, until she was proved to be lying.

sassy wrote:This is a Conservative Party issue, as well as an employment issue.  The Conservative Party look into wrongdoing by their representatives, as do all other parties and in this case the problem is not just the bullying of the girls, but the fact she changed a constituents post to make it look as if he was sending death threats to her, then went to the Press with it, until she was proved to be lying.

Yes. I'm not going to accuse her without looking into it more, but doing stuff which brings the party into disrepute would be a party issue.

Isn't she a bit of a newbie? She won the Telford election by quite a narrow margin after it had been held by Labour for many years.

Believe so.

I wonder then if she was elected because of her personal talents or if it was just because she's a Tory. It looks like a lot of the previous LibDem voters changed their allegiance and voted Tory.

She's not even from Telford. I don't approve of that - people who stand for election should at least know the area.

I'm just looking into this line she added onto an email from Rusty from Dawley. She admits doing so, but said that it was from a different email. If she gave the impression that it was something Rusty from Dawley had said, he could have been in hot water for that.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mp-defends-faking-death-threat-over-syria-air-strikes-vote-a6764766.html

I'm not sure why she's putting all this stuff on the internet anyway - of course she will get emails from disgruntled people - she's a politician.

I'm reserving judgement on the latest stuff because I'm always wary of new accusations which only come to light after previous complaints which didn't lead anywhere.

Errrr, it's all on tape and on the link, it was recorded by the ansaphone.

sassy wrote:Errrr, it's all on tape and on the link, it was recorded by the ansaphone.

Why didn't the woman ring in to say she was sick?

Anyway, there are other complaints besides that one.

There are, and they are all documented, so it's about time the Conservatives got their fingers out and sacked her.

I can't hear most of that audio really. I can hear her asking the employee to call her, and clearly she didn't. She then said the employee is odd for not turning up day after day and not speaking to her.

I can't hear much after that, but I can hear her say that the employee failed to turn up for three days in a row and didn't ring in sick, and that if she doesn't go in on Monday she'll stop her pay and that she will assume that she's walked out.

Does that mean there was no sick note sent at that time, and no communication from the employee? You don't just go off sick and not say anything to your employer.

I have to say it's rather unwise to vent your frustrations in a phone message though.

I'm partially deaf and could hear all of it.

sassy wrote:I'm partially deaf and could hear all of it.

Could you do a transcript then? Ta.

There is a transcript on the links

sassy wrote:There is a transcript on the links

Thanks. I will of course be checking that against the audio to see if I can get it to match, and if anything has been omitted.

There seems to be a lot missing from that transcript. I could hear some of the first bit anyway. I can't find the other stuff on the audio.

Ms Plumbly says she notified Allan of sick days via text, which was an agreed method. She strongly denies any allegation of theft and says she does not drink.

Why didn't she just ring to say that she'd sent a text?

I don't think it was wise for Lucy Allan to keep calling. She could have just terminated the contract if she really didn't receive notification that the woman was ill.

If they arrested every conservative for their crimes we would not have enough people in their party left to stand at all. There needs to be mental assessments made on any leader or MP before they are given any control at all concerning the public. It is claimed that Hitler and Gaddafi were mentally unstable. What about leaders today, causing all this carnage?

If Lucy Allan stays as an MP, I think she really needs to calm down. Putting all those messages on Facebook, adding bits to them, and getting so stressed out when dealing with employees isn't going to do anyone any good, including her.

Very true, I know this from experience. No good for the blood pressure at all

I'm also going to pull Rusty from Dawley up a bit for his email. It started off quite well, but the paragraph at the end was only going to get her back up.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/12/04/16/2F0D740600000578-3346220-image-m-26_1449245441688.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3346220/Tory-MP-voted-bomb-Syria-Facebook-death-threat-row-adding-unless-die-constituent-s-email.html

I think she should have replied to him and said that when he learns to be civil, she will respond to his points.

I'm not disputing what this lady says, but her doctor told her to take a whole month off work because she had a cough and a gum infection?

Do doctors usually sign someone off for that long straightaway for that kind of ailment?

"I was off ill for two days in September with a terrible cough and then I got a gum infection.

"My doctor told me to have four weeks off. That's when she threatened to sack me."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-35122833

I've now listened to the phone call between Lucy Allan and Arianne Lumbly, which was recorded for some strange reason and then leaked to the press.

It sounds like Lucy Allan was at the end of her tether with Arianne after a number of other incidents, and she doesn't believe she's ill - not enough to be off sick for four weeks anyway. I certainly didn't hear any coughing, and Arianne sounded quite calm to me - not like a person who's been bullied.

It would have been best if Arianne had either resigned, or if Lucy Allan had terminated her contract rather than give her ultimatums and having a rant on the phone.

Lucy Allan made a reference to Arianne Lumbly not having 12 months service. I think it would be two years before she could have claimed unfair dismissal anyway.