Accused of harassment, British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab resigned on Friday, a blow for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, of whom he was a close ally and who had promised a government of integrity after the scandals of the Johnson era.
With two weeks of local elections which promise to be difficult for the Conservatives in power, an independent report has established that Dominic Raab, also Minister of Justice, had behaved in a way akin to moral harassment towards collaborators in previous functions. ministerial.
“I had requested this investigation and had undertaken to resign if it established the facts of harassment, whatever they were. I believe that it is important to respect my word”, writes Mr. Raab in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, again rejecting the challenges, criticizing the procedure and showing no regrets.
In his response, in the same tone, Rishi Sunak expressed his “great sadness” to accept the resignation of his ally who had played a key role in his campaign for Downing Street last summer, praising his action at length without questioning his behavior.
Oliver Dowden, minister at the head of the powerful Cabinet Office dealing with interdepartmental files, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister while Alex Chalk, MP and former lawyer, became Minister of Justice.
The case falls badly for the Conservative government with the approach of local elections but also when Rishi Sunak, in Downing Street since October, seemed to stabilize his party after months of scandals and fall in the polls. What did he know of the charges against his ally when he named him number two? asks the opposition.
Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer also accused the Prime Minister of “weakness” for not having removed Mr. Raab from office, letting him resign.
This investigation had been launched following eight complaints concerning the behavior of Dominic Raab when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Brexit or during a previous visit to the Ministry of Justice.
The report, which exonerates him from several charges, however considered that he had acted in an “intimidating” and unreasonably aggressive manner” during a work meeting.
Or that he had committed “abuse or misuse of (his) power” which resulted in “discrediting and humiliating” an employee.
The British press had evoked in recent months a “culture of fear” established by the ex-minister, or even tomatoes thrown in a fit of anger in a meeting, which his spokesperson had denied at the time.
Taking up an argument from a section of the Conservatives who are very critical of the administration, Dominic Raab, a black belt in karate and reputed to be maniac, worried in his letter of resignation about a “dangerous precedent”: “Ministers should be able to criticize directly” the work of senior civil servants.
Going further on the BBC, he worried about the “risk that a very small majority of very militant civil servants (…) who do not like the reforms (…) try to block the government. “This is not very democratic”, added Dominic Raab, who had already been demoted from the government in 2021: then head of diplomacy, he had remained on vacation while the Taliban took power in Kabul.
He is the third minister to quit Rishi Sunak’s government after various accusations, a further stain on the prime minister’s promise to show “integrity, professionalism and accountability” in office after the succession of scandals under Boris Johnson.
In November, Gavin Williamson, a minister without portfolio, resigned after accusations of harassment.
And in January, Rishi Sunak had to dismiss the president of the conservative party Nadhim Zahawi, who sat as such in the council of ministers, for tax disputes.
The very rich Prime Minister also finds himself again in trouble for his family fortune, a source of possible conflicts of interest: a parliamentary inquiry was recently opened into possible shortcomings in his statement, his wife holding shares in a childcare company likely to benefit from recent government aid.
21/04/2023 18:34:54 – London (AFP) – © 2023 AFP