It appears that more civil servants were planning to lodge complaints against Dominic Raab, the current deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, but ultimately decided against it for fear of being identified. A senior lawyer by the name of Adam Tolley KC is currently investigating a number of complaints regarding Raab’s behavior. However, it has been reported that some civil servants who had initially intended to lodge formal complaints ultimately did not.
Raab, who was appointed to his current role by Rishi Sunak, has denied any allegations of bullying. He previously served as justice secretary and deputy prime minister under Boris Johnson, but was sacked from those positions when Liz Truss became prime minister in September. However, after Sunak became prime minister, Raab was reappointed to both of those positions.
The MP for Esher and Walton is facing multiple complaints from his first tenure at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as well as from his time as Brexit secretary in 2018. Additionally, he is currently the subject of a single complaint from his tenure as foreign secretary.
It is believed that some civil servants who had planned to file complaints did not ultimately do so after being told that they would be identified to Raab as part of the investigation by Tolley. This is reportedly standard practice for investigations and not taking testimony from anonymous sources. However, it is suggested that some feared being identified in case Raab were to remain in his post and would know that they had complained against him.
The prime minister will ultimately decide Raab’s political future once Tolley concludes his investigation. Some staff members who have not directly complained are now offering to act as witnesses for the inquiry. Tolley has been conducting interviews regarding Raab’s alleged conduct since the start of the year.
Whitehall sources claim that Raab has modified his alleged behavior since returning to the MoJ last autumn. The senior civil servants’ union, the FDA, wants to see the complaints process overhauled, claiming that confidence in the system was all but destroyed after former home secretary Priti Patel remained in her post after being investigated for bullying. The FDA believes this has led to a reluctance among some of their members to make complaints.
The government has promised that Tolley will have access to all the information he needs and that his report on Raab’s conduct will be made public. When the inquiry was announced last November, Raab stated that he would “thoroughly rebut and refute” the claims against him in a “fair and formal” setting, and that he was “confident” he had behaved “professionally throughout”.
