Dominic Raab, Rishi Sunak's deputy, quits over bullying scandal: What’s the case about?

UK deputy prime minister Dominic Raab quit his post on Friday. Raab, the second-in-command to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, resigned over after a report found that he had acted in an intimidating manner toward civil servants. Raab tweeted:

My resignation statement.👇 pic.twitter.com/DLjBfChlFq

— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) April 21, 2023

“Whilst I feel duty-bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry, it dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me,” he wrote in a resignation letter. “I also believe that its two adverse findings are flawed and set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good government.” The bar for bullying was set so low, he said, that “it will encourage spurious complaints against ministers and have a chilling effect on those driving change”. But what do we know about the case? Let’s take a closer look: According to BBC, Sunak set up the probe headed by a senior lawyer to investigate eight complaints involving 24 people. The complaints span Raab’s tenure as justice secretary and foreign secretary in the previous Boris Johnson administration as well as the Theresa May administration when he was Brexit secretary and related to his dealings with civil servants. [caption id=“attachment_10882781” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Dominic Raab served in the administrattion of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson. AP[/caption] The senior employment lawyer Adam Tolley, who was tasked with looking into the claims in November, submitted his report to Sunak on Thursday. The 48-page report is yet to be published, but its findings have been made public. Tolley in the report said Raab “acted in a way which was intimidating,” was “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” and “introduced a punitive element” to his leadership style. “His conduct also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates,” Tolley wrote. “His conduct was bound to be experienced as undermining or humiliating by the affected individual, and it was so experienced.” It said while at the Justice Ministry he had gone “further than was necessary or appropriate in delivering critical feedback and also insulting, in the sense of making unconstructive critical comments about the quality of work done”. “(Raab) has been able to regulate this level of ‘abrasiveness’ since the announcement of the investigation,” Tolley wrote. “He should have altered his approach earlier.” The inquiry found two incidents of bullying against Raab – at the Foreign Office in dealing with a senior diplomat’s handling of the Brexit negotiation over Gibraltar, and one where he gave critical feedback during an earlier stint at the Ministry of Justice from 2021 to 2022. The BBC quoted civil servant union FDA as demanding an independent inquiry with general Secretary Dave Penman calling it a “damning indictment” of the process for enforcing ministerial standards. The ministerial code of conduct requires ministers to treat people with respect and have proper and appropriate relationships with colleagues, civil servants and staff.

It says harassment, discrimination and bullying will not be tolerated.

A former foreign affairs official told The Guardian in March that Raa was ‘100 per cent a bully’ and that his office was seen as a ‘hardship post’. “I read it as someone that uses their influence to intimidate other people,” the individual, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. “And if that is the definition then he was 100% a bully.” He added that officials were “terrified to have interactions with him but also to interact with his office” and that Raab did “absolutely nothing” when a colleague was bullied by someone else. “He didn’t step in,” the official said. “One of the most powerful men in the country was condoning it and saying that kind of behaviour was acceptable.” The individual further claimed Raab put “unreasonable pressure” on civil servants. “I think you can have high expectations and not be a bully. I think he had high expectations and was a bully,” he said. Raab hits back Raab, a former lawyer and karate black belt, denied bullying civil servants working for him and in his letter rejected allegations of an overbearing manner with colleagues. Raab said in his letter that he had “not intentionally belittled anyone” and was “genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offense that any officials felt.” He noted the inquiry concluded he had not “sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone.” Raab also called the findings “flawed” and said the inquiry “set a dangerous precedent” by “setting the threshold for bullying so low.” He added that he quit because he was “duty bound” to resign since he had promised to. He insisted in his letter that ministers “must be able to exercise direct oversight with respect to senior officials over critical negotiations conducted on behalf of the British people”. Not to do so, he said, would mean the loss of “the democratic and constitutional principle of ministerial responsibility”. He also maintained ministers “must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions to senior officials in order to set the standards and drive the reform the public expect of us”.

“Of course this must be done within reasonable bounds,” he went on.

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 intimated anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone”. “I am genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice,” he added. “That is, however, what the public expect of ministers working on their behalf.” Keir Starmer, the leader of the main Opposition Labour Party, accused Sunak of “weakness” for failing to sack his deputy rather than letting him resign. [caption id=“attachment_10887971” align=“alignnone” width=“512”] Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer slammed Rishi Sunak as ‘weak’, AFP[/caption] Another of Sunak’s senior ministers, Gavin Williamson, also quit in November after bullying allegations, and the prime minister sacked Conservative Party chair Nadhim Zahawi in January after he was found to have broken the ministerial code over his openness about his tax affairs. Sunak is facing his own investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog into his behaviour over whether he properly declared his wife’s shareholding in a childcare company which stands to benefit from new government policy. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.