Dominic Raab’s fate in Rishi Sunak’s hands after long-awaited bullying claims report concludes

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2023

admin

Dominic Raab’s fate is in the hands of Rishi Sunak after a long-awaited investigation into bullying claims by his deputy concluded.

A report on the findings, which is understood to be “very lengthy”, was handed to Number 10 on Thursday morning, with the prime minister said to be “carefully considering” its conclusions.

Senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC has been looking into multiple allegations of bullying by the deputy prime minister, justice secretary and loyal ally of the PM since November last year.

Under ministerial rules, Mr Sunak, as prime minister, has to decide whether the conclusions of the report means Mr Raab did bully staff and if he did then what the consequences will be.

But on Thursday afternoon, Sky News was told “no further action” would take place that day regarding Mr Raab’s future.

Mr Raab told Sky News in February he would resign if the inquiry found he had bullied staff.

His future now hangs in the balance, with the report not made public yet and Downing Street insisting a resolution will be sought “as swiftly as possible”.

Throughout the investigation, Mr Raab has insisted he “behaved professionally at all times” and pointed out he initiated the inquiry into himself when the accusations were made.

Allies of Mr Raab said “he’ll fight to the death”, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Sky News also understands Mr Raab and Mr Sunak did not speak on Thursday – and Mr Raab has seen the report and maintains he has behaved professionally at all times.

The investigation was looking into whether Mr Raab had bullied civil servants during his time as both foreign secretary from 2019 to 2021, and then justice secretary from 2021 to 2022 under Boris Johnson’s premiership.

Labour and the Lib Dems accused Mr Sunak of “dither and delay” over what they perceive as his inaction.

Shadow cabinet member Emily Thornberry said: “I just think whilst he dithers and delays and summons up the courage to sack his deputy, the rest of the country is dealing with the cost of living crisis, which is worse than it has been in a generation.

“Wages aren’t keeping up with prices, people can’t afford food and heating and their housing and the Conservative Party is in chaos again, not dealing with the priorities of the people who elected them.

“I think, quite frankly, the prime minister should read the report. If the man’s a bully he should go.

“We just need to move on with this and move back to what’s important for the public.”

She added every time “one of these Conservatives get into trouble they don’t just undermine the reputation of Conservatives, they undermine the reputation of all members of parliament”.

What punishment could Mr Raab receive?

Changes to the ministerial code mean Mr Sunak can impose sanctions on his deputy that do not involve him being sacked, if he is found to have bullied staff.

This could include Mr Raab having to make a public apology, “remedial action” such as attending an anger management course or the removal of his ministerial salary for a period of time.

Mr Tolley is understood to have spoken to dozens of witnesses, including top civil servants and Mr Johnson, following claims Mr Raab created a “culture of fear” at the Ministry of Justice, and allegations that he was “very rude and aggressive”.

Colleagues were allegedly “scared” to go into his office when he was foreign secretary, former permanent secretary Lord McDonald has said.

However, a Tory MP who formerly worked as a parliamentary private secretary to Mr Raab said his ex-boss was always “courteous and professional” with his staff.

Speaking after the report was handed to Downing Street, Gareth Johnson told Sky News he can “only go by what I witnessed”, but added: “Not once did I ever witness him behaving in a manner that could be described as bullying.”

UK

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

1 hour ago

July 5, 2025

admin

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

UK

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva’s funeral in pictures

Published

2 hours ago

July 5, 2025

admin

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva's funeral in pictures

The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.

The Liverpool forward, 28, and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday.

Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Miguell Rocha played with Jota for around ten years with Gondomar Sport Clube in Portugal.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

The former captain was seen wiping away tears as he read messages and laid his tribute down.

UK

How Britain’s most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective’s talk

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

admin

How Britain's most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective's talk

Britain’s most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch.

Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink’s-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials.

Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink’s-Mat Gold in 2019, said: “I go outside and they say ‘he’s here’ and I say ‘who’s here’ and they say that table over there in the corner, that’s Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head.”

Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink’s-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold.

After his release, he used a knife again in the M25 road-rage murder of motorist Stephen Cameron.

“They said what are we going to do?” said Mr Brown.

“I said are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives.”

Although Mr Brown had not personally arrested Noye over Brink’s-Mat he had identified him as a suspect months after the robbery.

Years later he met him during an ill-fated TV interview in which he quizzed him about his role in the robbery.

He said: “He told me everything I wanted to know except the truth. He still insists he had nothing to do with it.”

The interview was never broadcast after the prison authorities threatened to send Noye back to jail for a breach of his parole.

Mr Brown, 86, said: “I went over to him and said ‘thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in’, but I don’t believe you’ve turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer.

“And he said ‘I want to make sure you don’t say I’ve been dealing drugs’ and I said ‘I’ve never said that Kenny’.”

The retired detective told Noye he wasn’t going to change his presentation just because he was there.

“He said ‘mate, I wouldn’t expect you to and I’ll come up [on stage] if you want me to’.

“Can you think how he’s turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that.”

The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I’d been told about the meeting.

I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983.

“It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better,” said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean.

He said he chatted to one of the show’s writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more.

“They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I’m just very sad that that is what people will believe.

“And I couldn’t work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops.”

He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.