The truth about multiple litigant Mrs Pratt - the high priestess of victimhood

Christine Pratt is a habitual whistleblower.



In the past 15 years, she's sued two multinationals, claiming hundreds of thousands in compensation for alleged discrimination.



On a more mundane level, there have been spats with her local council over a footpath and garden bordering her house.

Whistleblower: Christine Pratt is at the centre of the controversy surrounding bullying claims from Downing Street staff

But the shrillest and most attention-grabbing peep from her well-worn pipe came at the weekend.



As founder of a hitherto obscure charity, the National Bullying Helpline, she claimed it had been contacted by 'three or four' of Gordon Brown's office staff who, she says, 'believe they are working in a bullying culture and that it has caused them some stress'.

Her intervention - and breach of the helpline's confidentiality - followed allegations in a new book that Mr Brown is a bully, claims that he and ministers have denied.



By last night, everyone involved in what has become an increasingly ludicrous saga was looking a little shabby. Not least among them Mrs Pratt and her 'helpline', which is based in a Swindon business park. Serious questions have been raised about the charity.

Yesterday, one of its patrons, Professor Cary Cooper, an expert in workplace stress, resigned because he felt Mrs Pratt had breached 'patient confidentiality'. Two other patrons, including Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, followed suit last night.

And the Mail can reveal there have been a number of complaints from members of the public who have contacted the National Bullying Helpline in the past.

Far from receiving free support and advice, callers were put in touch with a consultancy run by Mrs Pratt's businessman husband David, 68, who charged four-figure fees to 'investigate' their complaints of bullying. On one occasion, he turned up on a client's doorstep demanding payment.

Last night, the Charity Commission said the helpline's annual accounts are 207 days overdue, despite three reminders.

'A number of issues have been raised over the weekend concerning the charity National Bullying Helpline, and the Charity Commission has received a number of complaints,' says a spokesman for the watchdog.

'We are considering these to see which may fall within our remit. We will be contacting the charity for further information.'

U.S. president Harry Truman once gave blunt advice to those who presume to be involved in politics or other positions of responsibility: 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.'



In New Labour's Britain, the guidance appears to be if you can't stand the heat, seek recompense.

Mrs Pratt launched two claims against her former employer BAE Systems, but refused to comment on either this week

Such an approach was enshrined in the 1998 Human Rights Act. Its critics have seen it as a charter for ambulance chasing, petty litigation and the growth of the health and safety leviathan. Now it is Mr Brown's turn to feel its clammy grip.

At the centre of this cameo of the grievance industry in action is 54-year-old Mrs Pratt. The mother of one has a colourful litigious history.

Her first employment tribunal action was launched against BAE Systems, where until 1995 she had worked as a secretary. She claimed constructive dismissal and bullying, and settled out of court.

But in 2003 she was back, accusing BAE of breaching a confidentiality agreement. Another action for £450,000 in damages was launched.

In the years between the two BAE cases, Mrs Pratt found time to accuse Japanese firm Sanden International (Europe) Ltd of sexual and racial discrimination.

She told a tribunal she left the firm - where she had been human resources officer - in 2001 after the managing director told her women are less intelligent than men. Last night, she refused to discuss the outcome of either action or if she'd been involved in other tribunals.

With her husband, she established the National Bullying Helpline in 2002. It was designed, Mrs Pratt claims, to provide help for employees and employers suffering problems with bullying in the workplace, and was given charitable status in 2007.



But the Pratts' motives were not entirely altruistic.

They also ran a company called HR & Diversity Management Ltd. Callers to the helpline found themselves being referred by Mrs Pratt to the firm where, after paying a £300 deposit, they faced a much larger bill for an 'independent' investigation of their situation.

Yesterday, the Mail was given testimony by two people who had suffered bullying and contacted the helpline, only to be asked for large sums of money.

Both had complained to Swindon South MP Anne Snelgrove, Gordon Brown's parliamentary aide. Mrs Snelgrove initially supported the Pratts' charity, but severed links two years ago following concerns about its running.

In the first case, Nico Souleles contacted Mrs Pratt after being suspended from his senior lecturer post at a college in Cumbria. Mr Souleles, 51, was yesterday working abroad and was reluctant to discuss his dispute with Mrs Pratt, but he explained in an earlier email: 'When I contacted Christine Pratt, I was going through terrible mental anguish due to the institutionalised harassment and bullying I was experiencing from my employer.

'She promised me she would deal personally with my case, and then I was asked to pay a deposit of £300.

The report I got at the end of the day was not ...detailed enough or strong enough to counter the malicious allegations my employer was throwing at me.

'A discussion followed between my legal adviser and Christine Pratt about the amount of money I had to pay her considering the quality of what I received.



The PM's office has rejected calls for an inquiry into the bullying claims

'While this was going on, her husband, totally uninvited, knocked on our door one night just when the kids went to sleep and demanded money. This was quite disturbing for my wife and my family.'

Mr Souleles said that Mr Pratt had demanded £4,000.

Jane McGrath from London also complained about the helpline. 'I called it as I was very desperate and really at the end of my tether due to workplace bullying,' she said.



'All this woman did was to send me forms that were part of her own consultancy business offering her "independent investigation services" at a considerable fee to my employer.

'There was no support, no guidance, advice or care - I felt very much as if she was using me and my devastating situation as a means to accrue business from my employer.

'She said she was too busy to talk as she was off on holiday and would call back. She never did, but did manage to email me the forms to present to my employer before she left.

'I would strongly protest (about) a woman who . . . lines her own pockets . . . in the guise of running a much-needed helpline.'

Last night, Mrs Pratt confirmed that callers to the helpline had been referred to her husband's business and some had complained. But she defended her charity.

'Since the helpline became a registered charity in 2007, we have separated it from the HR company - they have separate offices and separate processes,' she said.

'However, we do give callers the option to be referred on to dispute resolution service providers - and our HR company does provide a dispute resolution service.'

She said of Mr Souleles and Ms McGrath: 'They were quite pushy and told us they couldn't afford solicitors. Mr Souleles thought we were going to be giving him low-cost support and signed up knowing exactly what we were doing. He reneged on the payments to us.

'I would not accept a fee-paying client now who has called the charity helpline. For the past 18 months to two years, we have stopped acting as an adviser in any way to individuals because in nine out of ten cases they do not have the money. If they did, they would pay for a solicitor.

'Because we're a charity, they expect support for nothing, and if they don't get the outcome they want they tend to take it out on us.

'The expectations of Nicos Souleles and people like him are such that we are unable to support them.'

She denied she has political motivations. However, the helpline office is two doors from the local Conservative Association and David Cameron endorses the charity on its website.

How different to the last General Election campaign, when Mr Cameron's predecessor, Michael Howard, said: 'The time has come to liberate the nation from the avalanche of political correctness, costly litigation, feeble justice and culture of compensation running riot in Britain today.'

At 10am yesterday, the National Bullying Hotline was still being flagged up on the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills website. By 3.30pm, it had been removed.

Mrs Pratt and her 'helpline' had been torpedoed in the choppy waters of political combat. Whether she was a victim or aggressor in this saga is another matter.