RAAB IS OUT IN BULLYING STORM

FORCED TO QUIT OVER BEHAVIOUR BUT GOES WITH BITTER BLAST AT PROBE

- Nicholas Cecil, Rachael Burford

Furious Raab finally goes after 24 hours of ‘dither and delay’ over his fate in probe

DOMINIC RAAB was forced to resign today after a damning bullying probe into his behaviour at three Whitehall departments.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary fired off an angry letter as he quit the Government about 24 hours after Rishi Sunak had been handed the report by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC. “Whilst I feel duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry, it dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me,” said Mr Raab, who had pledged to quit if he was found to have bullied civil servants.

He criticised the two findings against him as “flawed” and also argued in his letter to the Prime Minister: “In setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent.

“It will encourage spurious complaints against ministers and have a chilling effect on those driving change on behalf of your government.”

But the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, immediately called for an independent inquiry into ministerial bullying.

General Secretary Dave Penman said: “Bullying blights people’s lives and careers. It also gets in the way of government working effectively and efficiently.

“This investigation must be the seminal moment when the Prime Minister recognises that he has a duty to protect civil servants from the misconduct of ministers, and that the current system is neither fit for purpose nor commands the confidence of the very people it is supposed to protect.”