Dominic Raab latest: Dominic Raab attacks ‘activist’ civil servants after bullying report

Dominic Raab has accused “activist” and “passive-aggressive” officials of blocking reforms like Brexit in a new form BBC Interview.

In an interview with the station’s political editor Chris Mason, Mr Raab accused a small group of “very activist” senior officials of opposing proposed government reforms because they don’t support them.

The former deputy prime minister complained that the report on his behavior failed to make it clear that complaints from lower-level officials were not upheld.

He told the BBC that two counts in which he was found guilty came from a “handful of very senior officials”.

Mr Raab said there is a risk that a “very small minority of very active officials” who do not support the reforms are “effectively trying to block the government”.

“That will not do. It’s not democratic,” he adds.

The Conservative colleague said he thinks Dominic Raab is “too great a talent” not to be back “in some capacity” after he resigned amid bullying allegations.

Lord Hugo Swire told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it is very unwise to lose someone who was, at this stage, Minister for Justice, Lord Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.”

He opened up about Mr Raab’s time standing up for Boris Johnson while the former Prime Minister was ill with Covid-19 and said there was “no criticism of it at all”.

“I think that career ended prematurely because I fundamentally believe that a talent like Dominic will eventually come back somewhere,” continued Lord Swire.

“It’s the loss of government. I think he will be back in some capacity.

“I think he’s too talented not to be.”

Speaking to GB News tonight, former Cabinet Secretary Mr Rees-Mogg said Mr Raab had erred in taking such action, which he said set a “damaging” precedent for the role of the public service.

Some in the Conservative Party call it an “olive branch.”

Rishi Sunak has sought to restore order following the resignation of his deputy prime minister amid a bullying scandal by bringing in one of his closest political allies.

Oliver Dowden – affectionately known as Olive by his Tory friends – is the new Deputy Prime Minister appointed just hours after Dominic Raab left Cabinet.

The report that prompted Dominic Raab’s resignation is 47 tightly packed pages.

But the report also contains interesting details about what did and did not happen while Mr Raab was a cabinet minister.

political correspondent jon stone Reports:

A British ambassador was reportedly at the center of one of the bullying complaints against former Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab.

Mr Raab resigned from the cabinet on Friday after completing an inquiry into multiple allegations against him.

Adam Tolley KC, the lead attorney leading the investigation, concluded that the MP acted “intimidatingly” and aggressively toward officers for Esher and Walton.

Dominic Raab would have been sacked by Rishi Sunak had he not resigned after two bullying complaints against him were confirmed, a report said.

The Esher and Walton MP was effectively evicted after Adam Tolley KC delivered his report to the Prime Minister, who concluded that Mr Raab had behaved in an “intimidating” and aggressive manner towards officials, sources said The times.

“The prime minister would have fired him,” a cabinet member told the newspaper.

Lord Swire, a former Conservative minister and Dominic Raab ally who in 2019 helped raise money for the former justice secretary’s failed leadership bid, said Adam Tolley KC’s report did not appear to show any examples of bullying.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the former East Devon MP said after citing a passage from Adam Tolley KC’s report in which the investigator said he had not found Mr Raab had intended to be with “exciting or humiliating” his behavior toward employees, said, “That doesn’t show me bullying.”

He added: “I’m actually having a hard time figuring out why Mr Raab actually left. The fact is, it’s a question of style.”

Lord Swire, reminding a civil servant of his duties under the Code of Public Service Conduct, denied that Mr Raab had ‘threatened’ that civil servant’s career.

He said: “In this case of Gibraltar, here we were, according to that report, a senior official allegedly wanted Spain to be more involved in these negotiations, which was in direct contradiction to what the Cabinet had agreed.

“So here you have Dominic Raab as Secretary of State saying, ‘Wait a minute, you’re going beyond your brief, that’s not what I said and it’s not what the Cabinet said’.

“As head of this department, he certainly has every right to take extreme anger and remind officials of their obligation to carry out ministerial requests in accordance with the code.”

A former top official who worked with Dominic Raab as foreign secretary said he needed to speak to the former cabinet minister about how he was dealing with staff.

Lord McDonald, who was Head of the Foreign Office between 2015 and 2020, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I saw a tough overseer, I saw a minister who knew what he wanted to do.

“Honestly, I’ve seen someone whose methods didn’t help him achieve what he wanted to do and that I’ve spoken to him more than once.”

When asked if Mr Raab had listened to the issues raised with him, the peer said: ‘No, he denied it. He has denied the characterization.”

Lord McDonald said the high threshold for lodging a formal complaint against ministers meant officials were reluctant to give their names on specific complaints.

He added: “Without that evidence, Mr Raab was able to distract. He said, and in a reasonable way, ‘What is the evidence?’. And without being able to present names and certain detailed cases, he defied my representations.”

Lord McDonald said he never suggested that Mr Raab bully colleagues as it would have been “too aggressive”.

He added that the Foreign Office’s two lawsuits against the former deputy prime minister came after he left his position as permanent secretary.

Lord McDonald, a former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, said he had seen no evidence of Dominic Raab’s allegation that “activist” officials were working against his ministerial agenda.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the colleague who had worked with Mr Raab as Foreign Secretary said: ‘I strongly disagree with Mr Raab.

“I think all the officers I’ve seen at Dominic Raab’s have worked very hard for him in the way that is required of them.

“There is no public service activism, there is no passive public service aggression, there is no separate public service agenda.

“And another important point is that acting officials cannot publicly defend themselves, so no acting official will now come forward and offer an alternative account because that’s not allowed.

“As a retired civil servant I can get involved in the case, but I wasn’t there when these cases came up – my knowledge is imperfect – but I think it’s important that the ethos, the craft of the civil servants, is defended.

“I have seen no evidence of a small group of activists attempting to undermine a minister. The problem is the behavior of a minister.”