Dominic Raab has written to the prime minister to resign after Rishi Sunak was handed a report yesterday into allegations of his deputy’s bullying behaviour.
The report is yet to be made public, but within his resignation letter Mr Raab reveals that senior lawyer Adam Tolley upheld two of the eight allegations against him.
The lengthy two-page letter also takes issue with parts of the “flawed” investigation.
It comes 25 hours after Rishi Sunak was first handed the findings of the investigation into his deputy, with the prime minister thought to be “carefully considering” its conclusions late into yesterday evening.
This morning transport secretary Mark Harper said that it was “quite reasonable” for Mr Sunak to take his time to consider the findings of the report into the accusations against the deputy PM.
In his letter of resignation to the prime minister, Mr Raab said: “I am writing to resign from your government, following receipt of the report arising from the inquiry conducted by Adam Tolley KC. I called for the inquiry and undertook to resign, if it made any finding of bullying whatsoever. I believe it is important to keep my word”.
Last month, Mr Raab told Sky News he would resign if any of the accusations against him are upheld.
Mr Raab added in his letter: “Whilst I feel duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry, it dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me. I also believe that its two adverse findings are flawed and set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good government.
“First, ministers must be able to exercise direct oversight with respect to senior officials over critical negotiations conducted on behalf of the British people, otherwise the democratic and constitutional principle of ministerial responsibility will be lost”.
It comes after allies of the deputy prime minister told the Daily Telegraph “he’ll fight to the death” over the report, claiming that Mr Sunak’s delay in making a decision suggested there were “grey areas” and the report was not “cut and dried”.
The first formal complaints over Mr Raab’s behaviour were made when he was foreign secretary in November last year. Following the complaints, the deputy prime minister wrote to Mr Sunak to request an independent inquiry into the complaints, which he duly approved, and it was handed to Mr Tolley.
The investigation was expanded 10 days later after a third complaint was lodged regarding Mr Raab’s time as Brexit secretary. In time, an additional five complaints emerged.
According to Mr Raab’s letter, two of those complaints were upheld by Mr Tolley’s investigation.
This morning Amy Leversidge, the assistant general secretary of the FDA Union which represents civil servants, told Sky News that a number of civil servants who made formal complaints against Dominic Raab were facing an “agonising wait” for answers. That wait, it seems, is over.
Last night, Labour accused the Conservatives of “dither and delay” over Mr Raab’s fate, adding that the prime minister should “make up his mind and get on with it”.
The shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said: “If he’s a bully he should go and the prime minister really should be able to read the report, make up his mind and get on with it, stop dithering and delaying”.
