League Against Cruel Sports Chair Caught in Bullying Scandal, Again

Private Eye reveals taxpayer-funded cover-ups of bullying and harassment under Dan Norris – raising fresh questions about his continued role as Chair of the League Against Cruel Sports.

LABOUR MP Dan Norris has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in attempts to hush up allegations by senior officials of bullying and harassment at the regional authority where he trousers almost £96,000 a year as part-time mayor.

Documents seen by the Eye reveal the tensions between officers at the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) — in “special measures” since last year — and Norris, metro mayor since May 2021, and his former political adviser Alex Mayer.

Last July, Norris ousted Jacob Rees-Mogg to win North East Somerset and Hanham. Mayer took Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. An external HR report for Weca said Mayer had bullied one top official by shutting them out of authority decisions, unfairly attacking their professionalism and ability to do their job. The officer left with a payoff believed to be tens of thousands of pounds.

A union representative interviewed for the report raised concerns about the “negative impact on team morale arising from actions and decisions of the metro mayor, resulting in an unprecedented level of turnover within the team”, an unwarranted expression by the mayor of a lack of trust and confidence in the team”; and “an allegation that responses to the public by the team were required to be ‘politicised’.

The turmoil at the authority came to light when its first chief executive, Patricia Greer, fell foul of Norris and his mini-me, leading to a 10-month leave of absence and a £219,000 exit package.

Norris, who must stand down in May, seems to be testing deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s zero-tolerance of local authority bullying to destruction!