Alok Sharma «bullyed» government employees by calling them when they were working from home.

Alok Sharma said he was never informed of any informal complaints or other complaints from employees. >Alok Sharma was accused of 'bullying' government employees when he called them while they were working from home.

Four senior officials who have worked alongside Mr Sharma, the former president of Cop26, since 2020 to 2022, claimed that he also «use profanity» and «insult the work of staff.»

The allegations, first published by Bloomberg and strongly denied by Mr Sharma, concerned both his presidency in the field of climate change, and his work as a business secretary.

Two out of four employees described his behavior during the pandemic — including, they say, contacting junior government employees on Microsoft Teams to criticize their work — as intimidating.

The Telegraph understands the calls were occurring during business hours. and that the claims came as a surprise in Whitehall, where Sharma has a good reputation.

A source in Whitehall said, «It's clear that working from home just doesn't work if a boss calls one of their team during work hours is considered bullying.» .

It was also reported that complaints against Mr. Sharma were made to civil service mandarins at least four times during 2020, although they were not escalated. The government insisted that there were no official records of any complaints.

«I categorically refute these claims.» work on.

Mr Sharma said: “I have never been informed of any informal complaints or other complaints from the staff. The cabinet has confirmed that there is no record of any informal or official complaints from the government against me. I strongly deny these allegations.»

He added that he worked with hundreds of government officials and «had a good relationship with them,» citing the decision of seven members of his team in the Business Department to join his Cop26 office.< /p>

An employee of the government said: “The heads of his personal office were not aware of any complaints, the Perm Seks [permanent secretaries] of his departments, too. There is no record anywhere of any complaints, informal or formal.”

This comes amid reports that Rishi Sunak is already considering potential successors to Dominik Raab at the DOJ ahead of a report on separate allegations that that Mr. Raab was intimidating civil servants.

Mr. Sunak is considering making broader changes to his cabinet from September, according to The Times, although he will not replace Mr. Raab with a new deputy prime minister .