Lawyer who claimed boozy fling with MP '˜just looking for cash'

Patronia Campbell, 49, claimed she had a fling with Huw Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle, after boozy works drinks in June 2011.

They were both colleagues at the administrators of collapsed Lehman Brothers International Europe (LBIE) and before Mr Merriman was elected as an MP.

He allegedly told her he wanted to marry her after the one night stand.

But after rejecting his pleas to have an affair managing director Mr Merriman allegedly subjected her to unjustified criticism of her performance, engineered situations to allow others to criticise her, and also gave her unfair ratings in an annual review.

Ms Campbell, who earned £130,000 a year plus bonuses, has taken the bank to the East London employment tribunal claiming she was harassed, victimised and unfairly dismissed.

The tribunal heard she while still employed at the bank she was signed off work with stress and was left “feeling like a zombie.”

Today the hearing was told about a grievance she filed to the bank in February 2014, in which she had requested a “suitable exit plan” due to the harassment and bullying she had suffered.

Representing Lehman Brothers, James Laddie QC said: “I put it to you that throughout this process you have been looking for cash from the beginning to the end?”

Ms Campbell replied: “I was looking to get my contractually agreed bonus payment, and I took advice about the intimidation, bullying and side-lining that I had been through since 2011 and there was an additional amount I could claim.”

Mr Laddie’s also accused her of having “completely invented” a mental illness she claimed she had developed as a result of her treatment.