Dowden becomes new UK Deputy PM as Raab quits over bullying

Dominic Raab yesterday quit his position as the UK Deputy Prime Minister, paving the way for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to replace him with two of his (Sunak’s) close allies.

Alex Chalk thus becomes the new Justice Secretary while Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Oliver Dowden, will take over the role of Deputy Prime Minister.

Chalk, currently a junior defence minister, has been a member of parliament (MP) since 2015 while Dowden already plays a key role in the Cabinet Office.

Raab had resigned his appointment as Deputy PM after an inquiry found that he acted in an intimidating and aggressive way with officials in behaviour that could have amounted to bullying.

Adam Tolley KC’s investigation published yesterday had concluded that Raab engaged in an “abuse or misuse of power” that “undermines or humiliates” while he functioned as foreign secretary.

Raab’s conduct in the department had a “significant adverse effect” on one colleague and he was also found to have been “intimidating” to staff by criticising “utterly useless” work while justice secretary.

Rishi Sunak, who had spent the night agonising over whether to sack his key ally, accepted Raab’s resignation on Friday morning with “great sadness”.

Raab, who also quit as justice secretary, went down swinging, criticising the “Kafkaesque saga” and accusing “committed officials” of trying to force him out of the Cabinet.

Tolley’s five-month investigation into eight formal complaints about Raab’s conduct as Brexit secretary and foreign secretary, and in his previous tenure leading the Ministry of Justice, was handed to Downing Street on Thursday morning.

Downing Street suggested that Prime Minister Sunak accepted that his ally broke the ministerial code with what amounted to findings of bullying.
The Tolley report said that Raab acted in an “intimidating” fashion with “unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct” in a work meeting while he was foreign secretary.
He also committed an “abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates” with a staffing move, which Raab argued was key to Brexit negotiations on Gibraltar with Spain.

Raab said in his resignation letter to the Prime Minister that he was “genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt”.

But he criticised a “number of improprieties” during the inquiry, including “systematic leaking of skewed and fabricated claims” as he called for an independent review.

Raab said the inquiry has “set a dangerous precedent” by setting a “low” threshold for bullying, which he says will “encourage spurious complaints”.

Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Sunak of “continual weakness” by allowing Mr Raab to resign rather than sacking him, before hitting out at the outgoing minister’s “whining”.