On
Friday, UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab announced his resignation
following an
upheld report of bullying claims against him, creating another
political shock for the country’s Conservative party. This resignation comes
just two weeks before the upcoming local elections in which the party is
expected to lose seats, adding to the headache of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Raab
had promised to resign if any claims against him were upheld, and even though
he was cleared of most of the allegations, he criticized the conclusions of the
lawyer-led inquiry. In his resignation letter, Raab stated that he felt
duty-bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry but that its two adverse
findings were flawed and set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good
government. He argued that the bar for bullying was set so low that it would
encourage spurious complaints against ministers and have a chilling effect on
those driving change.
Raab
also resigned from his post as justice secretary, where he had to battle a
backlog in criminal cases caused by years of under-funding and disruptions
caused by the pandemic. He previously served as Brexit minister and foreign
secretary but was moved from that post after being criticized for failing to
return from holiday as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.
Sunak,
who succeeded Liz Truss in October last year, has vowed to restore
“integrity, professionalism, and accountability” in government after
Johnson’s rollercoaster tenure. He previously sacked Nadhim Zahawi as
Conservative party chairman over his tax affairs, and Gavin Williamson, a
former defense secretary who kept a tarantula on his desk while in charge of
party discipline in parliament, quit over expletive-laden messages.
Raab,
a former lawyer and karate black belt, has denied bullying civil servants
working for him, and in his letter, he rejected allegations of an overbearing
manner with colleagues. He insisted that ministers “must be able to
exercise direct oversight with respect to senior officials over critical
negotiations conducted on behalf of the British people” and that not doing
so would mean the loss of “the democratic and constitutional principle of
ministerial responsibility.”
Sunak
appointed senior employment lawyer Adam Tolley to look into the claims in
November, and he submitted his report to Sunak on eight allegations on
Thursday. The report has yet to be published, but Raab said Tolley
“concluded that I had not once, in four and a half years, sworn or shouted
at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated
anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone.” He added that he was
genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offense that any officials felt as
a result of the pace, standards, and challenge that he brought to the Ministry
of Justice but that this was what the public expects of ministers working on
their behalf.
