Dominic Raab has preferred to safeguard his political future and put responsibility ahead of anger, although he has been unable to hide the latter. Britain’s Minister for Justice and Deputy Prime Minister handed in his resignation this Friday, 24 hours after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received an allegedly highly critical report about the politician’s treatment of his close associates. Raab faced eight allegations of workplace harassment and abuse of power by officials working for him, both during his time as foreign secretary and in his current position as justice secretary. In his resignation letter, he expresses his willingness to continue supporting the Sunak government, but cannot help but express his frustration at the investigation being conducted by labor attorney Adam Tolley.
The document claimed Raab had behaved “irrationally and persistently aggressively” during his time at the head of the Foreign Office. While admitting that the ex-minister did not want to humiliate the officers under him, the lawyer points out that his “aggressive” nature made it “difficult to work with him”.
In a letter to Prime Minister Sunak posted on Twitter, Raab has claimed the investigation has set a dangerous precedent. “I think the contradictory findings he’s putting forward are flawed and set a dangerous precedent for good government behavior,” Raab said. “Ministers must be able to exercise direct oversight over senior officials conducting important negotiations on behalf of the British people (…). And secondly, the ministers must be able to voice substantive criticism in their meetings with these senior officials in order to set the necessary standards and push ahead with the reforms that the public expects of us”, Raab justified two of the eight complaints of her employees presented by lawyer Tolley.
Oddly enough, in the first of the cases, as the ex-minister has already explained, he went too far in his rebuke of one of the diplomats who negotiated with the Spanish government over the future of the heads of Gibraltar in the post-Brexit era and who, according to Raab , “the mandate approved by the Government Cabinet was skipped.” London and Madrid are engaged in tense talks over future border control and jurisdiction over the British colony’s airport in Spain.
In his letter of resignation, Raab takes comfort in the fact that the investigation into his conduct, launched last November, concludes that in his four-and-a-half years in government he has never yelled or said anything obscene at anyone. Raab added in the letter: “I have not thrown any objects or physically intimidated anyone, nor have I tried to belittle anyone with my attitude.”
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The text is actually an attack on the perceived “millennial culture” of the new civil service, denounced by other members of the hard wing of the Conservative Party, to which Raab belongs. “By setting the threshold so low that cases of bullying are identified [acoso], the investigation has set a dangerous precedent. It will encourage future false complaints against other ministers and will have a crippling effect on those trying to press for change from government and on the British citizenry itself,” the politician complained.
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, the union that brings together the majority of UK civil servants (the so-called civil servants or civil servants), has defined Raab’s statement as a “non-apology” because of the tone he used. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry. A resignation with the class that we could expect. Beyond the non-apology, let’s think of all the officials who have had to put up with Raab’s special scrutiny for so long.” Nowak wrote on Twitter.
The bad character of Raab, the son of a Jewish immigrant who came to Britain from what was then Czechoslovakia, was an open secret. His time at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, where he earned his law degree, also helped him compete in boxing and karate. Former Prime Minister Theresa May came to appoint him as Brexit Minister and his Euroscepticism made him a favorite of this powerful Conservative Party current for a while, until he dared to present his candidacy for the party’s leadership in 2019 against one then unbeatable Boris Johnson. Raab later became a staunch ally of Sunak, supporting him in both of his attempts to lead the Tories. The current prime minister gave him the post of justice minister and also retained him in the more symbolic rather than executive position of deputy prime minister.
Sunak shows once again that his pulse doesn’t tremble when it comes to saving his own mandate. He demonstrated this by excluding Gavin Williamson, the former Education Secretary, also for his bad manners towards staff, or Nadhim Zahawi, the former leader of the Conservative Party, for concealing his budget problems with the UK Treasury.
On the same Friday Downing Street announced that Oliver Dowden, hitherto Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – with the rank of Minister responsible for managing the British Crown’s property heritage – became the new Deputy Prime Minister. Former Secretary of Defense Alex Chalk becomes the new Attorney General.
The Prime Minister faces local elections across the UK in early May – the biggest turnouts since May 2019 – which will be crucial in cementing his electoral future. Achievements like his budget to rectify the mess of his predecessor Liz Truss’ tax cut; the agreement with Brussels to put an end to the Irish Protocol’s contentious problem, or his harsh speech on irregular immigration have seen the Conservatives recover slightly in polls, which nonetheless gives the opposition a large lead to victory.
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