Kate Josephs: Sheffield residents share their anger at chief executive's return following Partygate

The council boss is beginning her first day back at the £190,000 job today (June 30) after a cross-party committee gave her the sign off on Wednesday.

Ms Josephs had been on paid leave since January after admitting she held a lockdown-breaching leaving do when she left her post as director general of the Government’s Covid taskforce.

In a subsequent statement, Ms Josephs apologised again for the breach, writing: “All I can offer is my sincere apology and my promise to work harder than ever for our city.”

Now, Sheffield residents have shared their thoughts on the scandal.

“Disgusting. This was not a mistake,” wrote Star reader Susan Vintin. “If you are responsible for writing the rules then you abide by them.

“This is a slur on Sheffield and all the people who pay their bills. She should do the right thing and step down.”

In her Government job, Ms Josephs would have led in writing the lockdown rules for the country.

She was fined £50 for the breach in the first wave of fixed penalty notices issued in late April.

Reader Bridget Ingle said the criticism of Kate Josephs is lopsided.

She wrote: “No man who was at one of those parties lost his job, and that includes the Prime Minister. What do people want? Public humiliation? For Kate Josephs to beg and cry in front of the camera to keep her job? People should have the opportunity to atone for their mistakes. And that is clearly what she is trying to do.”

Richard Pitts, however, feels the chief executive has lost the dressing room.

“How can she look any of her staff in the eye saying she is disappointed with their conduct after breaking the law in such a public fashion?” he wrote.

In her statement yesterday, Ms Josephs announced she would donate ‘a percentage’ of her salary to a good cause. She was on paid leave for the £190,000 job for five months.

“Part of it?”, wrote reader Dave Trotter. “She needs to hand the lot over and then resign.”

In a bizarre twist in the scandal, shortly after Ms Josephs posted her apology statement last night (June 29), the official Sheffield City Council Twitter page began retweeting her critics online.

@SheffCouncil, which has 114,000 followers, began retweeting comments such as: ‘75 households full year’s council tax money wasted on her six months leave’.

There was speculation it was the action of a disgruntled employee. The retweets were later deleted. The council said it was investigating the incident.

Reader Jayne Hutchinson wrote in response: “And here’s betting it won’t take them six months to investigate and deliberate whether the employee responsible for this can or can’t keep their job while sitting around on gardening leave.”“Irony is that the lowly paid person responsible for this will receive a harsher punishment than the law breaking CEO,” commented reader John Williams.