Dominic Raab resigns: The karate black belt MP who briefly ran the country but faced bullying claims
For almost three weeks, at the height of a once-in-a-generation crisis, Dominic Raab was in charge of the UK government.
When Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care with COVID in April 2020, it was Mr Raab who took over at the top.
Addressing the public during a Downing Street news conference shortly after taking over the prime minister’s responsibilities, Mr Raab vowed that he and the rest of the cabinet would “not blink or flinch in the task ahead at this crucial moment”.
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“He’s not just the PM – our boss – for all of us in cabinet he is also our colleague, our friend,” Mr Raab said. “If there is one thing I know about this prime minister; he’s a fighter.”
Later that year, he revealed just how serious that moment had been, saying: “I really worried we might lose him.”
It may have marked the most dramatic moment in his time at the top of government, but even without it, the period since he first joined the cabinet in 2018 has not been short of political tumult.
Before politics
An Oxbridge-educated lawyer, Mr Raab also had a career in the legal sector and then as a Foreign Office lawyer during the New Labour years.
This included defending then prime minister Tony Blair in a lawsuit lodged by Slobodan Milosevic, the ex-leader of Yugoslavia.
In 2006, Mr Raab, a karate black belt, moved into politics, working as an aide to then shadow home secretary David Davis.
He also had a spell working for Dominic Grieve, who went on to serve as attorney general during Theresa May’s premiership.
Entrance into parliament
In 2010, Mr Raab stood to be the MP for Esher and Walton after fellow Conservative Ian Taylor stood down.
The seat’s majority surged from just over 7,000 to close to 20,000 as David Cameron came to power in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Raab spent his early years in parliament as a backbencher, at one point co-authoring a book on economics called Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Prosperity.
His co-authors on the treatise were Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, Chris Skidmore and Priti Patel.
In the 2015 election, Mr Raab’s majority in Esher and Walton swelled to close to 30,000.
He was subsequently appointed as a junior minister under Michael Gove, who was then the justice secretary.
Mr Raab’s role included being the minister for human rights.
Mr Raab gives a speech at the Vote Leave campaign headquarters in June 2016
Support of Brexit and entrance to the cabinet
In 2016, Mr Raab announced he would be supporting the departure of the UK from the European Union.
He was a prominent campaigner working with the Vote Leave organisation.
Mr Raab spoke of his confidence that the UK would strike a trade deal with the EU in the wake of Brexit.
Following the result of the referendum and the resignation of Mr Cameron, Mr Raab stayed on as a government minister in the justice department under Theresa May.
His majority then slipped from close to 30,000 to around 23,000 in the 2017 general election.
In January 2018, Mrs May reshuffled her government and he became a housing minister under Sajid Javid.
It was only a few months later, in July 2018, that Mr Raab joined the top table of government.
When his former boss, David Davis, resigned as Brexit secretary over Mrs May’s Chequers proposal, Mr Raab was tapped as his replacement.
Shortly after taking up the position, Mr Raab was criticised for his comments when he said he “hadn’t quite understood” how reliant UK-EU trade was on the crossing between Dover and Calais.
In November 2018, Mr Raab resigned from the government over his opposition to the Brexit deal which had been agreed with the EU.
But by the following March, amid the nights of endless votes on Brexit, Mr Raab changed tack and voted to support Mrs May’s deal, as he said otherwise there was a “significant risk of losing Brexit altogether”.
Mr Raab launched his Tory leadership campaign in 2019
Failed leadership run – and actually running the country
After Mrs May stood down as prime minister in 2019, Mr Raab ran to replace her.
While he was never expected to win, his 30 or so supporters gave him negotiating power for a plum job with eventual winner Boris Johnson.
Coming out of the race, he was appointed foreign secretary – one of the great offices of state.
Mr Raab was also given the title of first secretary of state – becoming de facto deputy prime minister.
In the December 2019 election, Mr Raab’s majority collapsed from around 23,000 to under 3,000.
But he kept his position in the cabinet of Mr Johnson’s new majority government.
Mr Raab gives the government’s daily coronavirus update in 2020
The first secretary of state role is one that puts a minister above all other secretaries of state, which is the rank of most cabinet ministers.
Held by George Osborne under David Cameron, John Prescott under Tony Blair and Michael Heseltine under John Major, it is a role not always filled and not one often called upon.
But during the COVID pandemic, Mr Raab had to step up to the plate and lead the government when Mr Johnson was admitted to hospital with coronavirus.
After Mr Johnson was diagnosed with the virus at the end of March 2020, it was confirmed Mr Raab would be in charge of the country should the prime minister be unable to discharge his duties.
On 5 April that year, Mr Johnson was admitted to hospital and Mr Raab stood in, chairing meetings, delivering news conferences and responding at Prime Minister’s Questions.
It was only on 27 April 2020 that Mr Johnson once more took over again as prime minister.
Mr Raab visits the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan as foreign secretary. Pic: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
Hong Kong, Afghanistan and exiting the Foreign Office
After stepping back from running the country, Mr Raab returned to running the Foreign Office.
He was still dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, and it was soon announced that the international development brief would be added to his portfolio.
In the summer of 2020, Mr Raab announced the UK would offer a route for people from Hong Kong who held British National (Overseas) status to Britain after China effectively took over the region.
He announced in the Commons that China’s actions constituted a “clear and serious breach” of the treaty agreed between China and the UK in 1984 regarding the semi-autonomous city.
More than 144,000 people have since applied for the visa scheme.
The final act of Mr Raab’s tenure as foreign secretary arrived with the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The country was plunged into chaos, with a resurgent Taliban capturing swathes of the nation as Joe Biden and US allies pulled out their troops.
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What’s life like under the Taliban?
Evacuation efforts – known as Operation Pitting – were beset by issues, including people waiting in sewers to get into Kabul airport, and hanging from the side of aeroplanes as they took off in an attempt to flee the Taliban.
It soon emerged that Mr Raab was on holiday in Crete, and he fought off calls to resign following reports he was rejecting phone calls while away.
He later said that with the “benefit of hindsight” he would have returned earlier.
Mr Raab was mocked for telling Sky News that he was not paddleboarding as “the sea was closed”.
By mid-September, Mr Johnson had reshuffled his government and Mr Raab was removed from the Foreign Office. He was made justice secretary and deputy prime minister.
Replacement of Boris Johnson
Amid swathes of Conservative government resignations and calls for Mr Johnson to step down as prime minister in mid-2022, Mr Raab remained in post as justice secretary.
After Mr Johnson announced his resignation, Mr Raab announced his support for Rishi Sunak and was one of his most vocal supporters.
When Liz Truss won the race to be prime minister, Mr Raab left the cabinet and spent the following weeks engaging on social media with constituency issues.
Once the Truss premiership collapsed, Mr Raab returned to government once again as justice secretary and deputy prime minister.
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Raab ‘ruined lives’ with behaviour
Bullying allegations and downfall
Soon after Mr Sunak entered Downing Street, allegations began to swirl about another one of his allies – Gavin Williamson.
Eventually, Mr Williamson offered his resignation, but the spotlight soon turned to Mr Raab.
In November 2022, Mr Raab requested an investigation into the bullying claims made against him – although he insisted at the time that he was “confident that I have behaved professionally throughout”.
Adam Tolley KC was charged with leading the investigation.
Now Mr Raab has left the government, he is facing the likelihood of losing his seat as an MP at the next general election.
It is a top Liberal Democrat target, and his majority of less than 2,000 is looking precarious with the current unpopularity of the Conservatives.
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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