UK deputy prime minister quits after bullying investigation

By BRIAN MELLEY and JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab grudgingly resigned Friday after an independent investigation found he bullied civil servants, though he criticized the report as “flawed.”

Raab’s announcement came the day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received the findings of an investigation into eight formal complaints that Raab, who is also justice secretary, had been abusive toward staff members during a previous stint in that office and while serving as Britain’s foreign secretary and Brexit secretary.

Attorney Adam Tolley, who conducted the inquiry, said Raab “acted in a way which was intimidating,” was “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” and “introduced a punitive element” to his leadership style.

“His conduct also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates,” Tolley wrote in the 48-page report. “His conduct was bound to be experienced as undermining or humiliating by the affected individual, and it was so experienced.”

Raab, 49, denied claims he belittled and demeaned his staff and said he “behaved professionally at all times,” but said he was resigning because he had promised to do so if the bullying complaints were substantiated.

The investigation made two findings of bullying against him and dismissed the others, Raab said in his resignation letter. He called the findings “flawed” and said the inquiry “set a dangerous precedent” by “setting the threshold for bullying so low.”

Raab said he quit because he was “duty bound” to resign since he had promised to.

Sunak said he accepted the resignation “with great sadness,” in a letter that praised much of the work Raab had done. He also referred to “shortcomings” in the investigation, which he said had “negatively affected everyone involved.”

The resignation spared Sunak the difficult task of deciding the fate of his top deputy.

If he had fired Raab, he would have opened himself to criticism for appointing him in the first place despite reportedly being warned about Raab’s behavior; if he had kept him in the job, he would have been criticized for failing to follow through on his promise to restore integrity to the Conservative government.

Sunak received the investigation report Thursday morning and didn’t immediately make a decision. Spokesperson Max Blain, speaking before Raab’s resignation, said Sunak still had “full confidence” in Raab while he reviewed the report.

The ministerial code of conduct requires ministers to treat people with respect and have proper and appropriate relationships with colleagues, civil servants and staff. It says harassment, discrimination and bullying will not be tolerated.

Sunak’s delay in not acting swiftly, as he promised, gave his political opponents an opportunity to attack him for dithering.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer criticized Sunak for failing to sack Raab.

“What I think this shows is the continual weakness of the prime minister,” Starmer told broadcasters. “He should never have appointed him in the first place, along with other members of the Cabinet that shouldn’t have been appointed, and then he didn’t sack him. Even today, it’s Raab who resigned rather than the Prime Minister who acts.”

Raab was elected to Parliament in 2010 and unsuccessfully sought to become Conservative Party leader in 2019 before throwing his support behind Boris Johnson. Appointed deputy prime minister under Johnson, he briefly took charge of the government when Johnson was hospitalized with COVID-19 in April 2020.

Raab said in his letter that he had “not intentionally belittled anyone” and was “genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offense that any officials felt.”

He noted the inquiry concluded he had not “sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone.”

The bullying inquiry is the latest ethics headache for Sunak, who vowed to restore order and integrity to government after three years of instability under predecessors Johnson and Liz Truss. Multiple scandals brought Johnson down in summer 2022, and Truss quit in October after six weeks in office when her tax-cutting economic plans sparked mayhem on the financial markets.

But Sunak has struggled to shake off opposition allegations that the Conservative government remains mired in scandal and sleaze, and he is now facing an investigation himself.

A parliamentary watchdog announced this week that he was looking into whether Sunak properly disclosed his wife’s interest in a company that stands to benefit from a massive boost to free child care in his administration’s budget.

A member of Sunak’s Cabinet, Gavin Williamson, quit in November over bullying claims. In January, Sunak fired Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi for failing to come clean about a multimillion-dollar tax dispute.

A separate inquiry is underway into claims Johnson secured a loan with the help of a Conservative donor, Richard Sharp, who was later appointed chairman of the BBC.

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