Former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer has lifted the lid on the toxic atmosphere of the Boris Johnson government, saying the ministers’ behavior “would have succeeded. [you] blows to the mouth ”if shown to the army.
Mercer, who resigned last year in a row for the treatment of soldiers serving in Northern Ireland, said the Ministry of Defense was not a “professional work environment” and that his fellow ministers had treated him. like a “dope on the rope.” ”.
In a lengthy interview with the Institute for Government think tank, Mercer, a former Army officer, said that his former Chief of Staff Ben Wallace, the Secretary of Defense, ignored his calls and text messages. for fifteen days.
“It was very difficult,” he said. “I once tried to catch him for two weeks without success. He denied it, of course, but when he took out his phone and showed him the missed calls and messages, he had no leg to hold on to. very sad: I liked the boy. “
Mercer expressed surprise at the way ministers treated their officials. “If you had talked to people like that in the military, they would have punched you in the mouth,” he said. He also criticized the special advisers who have proliferated under Boris Johnson, with some ministers having as many as five.
“They act like the kind of power-drunk politicians they used to have in the Russian army to make sure everyone was in line, who have seen too many political dramas on television and think that the way to do things is to be a shit for everyone, “he said. “The way they go is crazy, absolutely crazy. No other company would work like that because they would be fired.”
Mercer had long campaigned for the veterans of the armed forces to save what he considered vexatious prosecution for alleged crimes committed in the course of conflicts, including in Northern Ireland.
In his interview, he describes how he “lost control” of the issue to Wallace and Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis and was unable to keep Johnson’s promise of veterans he had made during the Conservative leadership campaign. in 2019.
Mercer said he told Johnson at one point that “I couldn’t trust anyone to tell me,” including in the prime minister’s office, and that Johnson, Wallace and Lewis blamed each other for the lack of progress on the subject.
“I was caught in the middle, but with absolutely no tools, leverage, seniority or power to do anything about it … a drug on the rope,” he said.
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Lewis has recently tried to address the issue of inherited prosecutions by introducing the Northern Ireland Issues (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, which would grant amnesty to combatants on both sides.
A Wallace spokesman declined to comment.