Dominic Raab up to his neck in bullying claims

Raab on the phone.


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A report into allegations that justice secretary Dominic Raab bullied civil servants at the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is expected to be published soon. PM Rishi Sunak is reportedly assessing the document. A disciplinary decision may be delivered in the near future.

However, senior civil servants are reportedly thinking of quitting if Raab is let off. The BBC’s Sima Kotecha tweeted:

Raab faces eight formal allegations of bullying, with the cases involving 24 different individuals. He denies behaving unprofessionally.

Read on...

Outside of this, the Tory Party is no stranger to bullying claims. Former home secretary Priti Patel faced similar allegations in 2020. However, as the Canary wrote at the time, being mean to civil servants was the least of her crimes.

Sunak will likely be under increased pressure, given that his predecessor Boris Johnson also had to discipline Raab over his behaviour.

Worst behaviour ever

Former colleagues told Sky News that Raab had a track record of punching down while sucking up to his superiors:

He would adapt his behaviour depending on the person…

So if you weren’t important, he’s absolutely awful, and then he’d pivot to being reasonable and affable – say with the PM or another senior figure.

Another collegue seemed to think Raab was unusually vicious to staff, even leaving them in tears with his “coercive” behaviour:

His was the worst behaviour I have ever seen. The way he would treat people, belittle people, interrogate people, ignore people. He created an awful atmosphere. It was coercive behaviour. He had people in tears after coming out of his office – but they wouldn’t want to complain, they saw it as professional pride – just to cope with it.

Flushed

Naturally, social media users saw an opportunity to lay into Raab. These included a Sunak parody account:

Another reminded us that justice is not always straightforward when it comes to Tories in general:

Meanwhile, for some it was clear that Raab should never be in a position to bully again:

Academic Jennifer Cassidy said it should be a baseline for Sunak, or any leader, to crack down on bullying:

However, for some it seemed unlikely that the party of bullies would actually act on bullying when it came to it:

Bully boys

The Tory Party has a reputation for bullying, and the pressure will be on Sunak to act. However, Raab remains a long-time ally of the PM. It remains to be seen if the Tories will close ranks to protect one of their number. Cynical as they are, there’s also a strong likelihood the Tories will turn on one of their own if it serves. Such is the nature of the Nasty Party.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Dominic Raab, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under Open Government Licence.

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  • Show Comments

    1. Seriously, have you read the report? The bloke he ‘intimidated’ by quoting the Civil Service Code was an ambassador! He’s generally a knob but, as Jacob R-M says, if an ambassador can be intimidated then perhaps he’s in the wrong job. And another complaint was that Raab had stared at someone aggressively. That poor soul should have been told to go home after work and get his Mummy to kiss it all better.
      What a flipping load of nonsense.

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