Friday April 21, 2023 | 4:38 p.m.
Dominic Raab resigned on Friday as UK justice minister and deputy prime minister after a report on workplace harassment allegations against him, and was replaced by two different officials, one for each position, British media reported.
Oliver Dowden was appointed deputy prime minister, and Alex Chalk, who already served as deputy minister in the Defense portfolio, was in charge of the Ministry of Justice.
Raab had vowed to resign if the investigation against him found evidence of harassment, saying it was “important to keep” his “word.”
Lead solicitor Adam Tolley KC had been investigating complaints from various public officials about Raab’s behavior over various periods, including when he served as Brexit minister under Theresa May and as Justice and then Foreign Minister for Boris Johnson.
Raab’s decision to resign also comes after months of investigation into him, which drew wide media attention in the UK.
According to the investigation report, the deputy prime minister was interviewed four times over two and a half days, while 44 written pieces of evidence were considered and 66 interviews were conducted in total.
In a column in The Telegraph newspaper, Raab suggested that he was the victim of a plot by “unionized officials” to remove him from office, although in the resignation letter he stated that the investigation dismissed all but two of the claims against him, he also criticized errors in the report, saying it set a “dangerous precedent for good governance conduct.”
The report also revealed that Raab had spoken of “cultural resistance” by public officials to some of his policies, including his proposed plans on the Bill of Rights and the parole system.
A colleague felt that the cultural resistance comment had been “directed personally and unfairly at him” and “he was insulted by it.”
The report indicates that Tolley did not find that Raab intended to make his comment personally, but it was reasonably construed that way.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said any finding that is considered bullying is grounds for resignation, adding that “clearly any bullying in general terms is unacceptable and there are clear rules that apply to that,” the BBC reported. . While he said Raab had resigned “properly,” he acknowledged there were “deficiencies” in the vetting process.
