Dominic Raab has now resigned from the government. (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Dominic Raab, Tory MP for Esher and Walton, has resigned from the government, posting his full resignation statement on Twitter.
The former Foreign Secretary has held many different government posts during his time in parliament but will be stepping down as Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as of today (April 21).
In his letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Mr Raab pledged to remain supportive of both the PM and the government from the backbenches and described the Mr Sunak (whose leadership campaign he introduced last July) as a ‘great Prime Minister in challenging times.’
But just why has Dominic Raab resigned?
Here is what you need to know.
Why has Dominic Raab resigned?
In November of last year, ITV reported on leaked documents that stated that staff in Dominic Raab’s private office claimed they were ‘bullied and harassed’.
Dominic Raab was reappointed by Rishi Sunak when he became PM. (Picture: UK Parliament/Getty)
The leaked people’s survey (undertaken in 2019) saw eight of the 20 people surveyed claiming to have been bullied or harassed at work and 15 people reporting to have seen someone else being bullied or treated unfairly.
An additional seven people did not respond to the anonymous survey.
Two formal complaints were ultimately made against the Deputy PM, and Mr Raab wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘to request an independent investigation’ into his conduct.
The Prime Minister appointed senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC to look into the matter, with The Guardian reporting in January 2023 that Mr Raab was facing a much broader investigation, with a reported 24 civil servants involved in complaints.
However, the final report itself states ‘eight formal complaints within the Terms of Reference… Any other number in this respect which appeared in media
reporting was not correct.’
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The report into Mr Raab’s conduct was delivered to Rishi Sunak yesterday, and the Prime Minister was taking time to consider its findings when Mr Raab resigned.
The full report has only just been published, but it found Dominic Raab described the work of officials as ‘utterly useless’ and ‘woeful’ while he was justice secretary, as well as making ‘unconstructive critical comments’ about the quality of work civil servants did.
However, today, Mr Raab made public his resignation letter, saying the report ‘dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me’ – claims which he described as ‘flawed’ and setting ‘a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good government.’
Mr Raab went on to say ‘Mr 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.’
Despite stating earlier in his letter that he felt ‘duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry’, Mr Raab concluded with a stinging rebuke of the report’s conclusions by saying ‘in setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent.
‘It will encourage spurious complaints against Ministers and have a chilling effect on those driving change on behalf of your government – and ultimately the British people.’
MORE : Who could replace Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary?
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Dominic Raab will be returning to the backbenches.
