Sunak must act swiftly on Raab – and show real leadership

Editorial: The prime minister must show, by deeds as well as words, why his is a different style of government

Dominic Raab leaves Downing Street (PA)

That it has taken so many months for the senior barrister Adam Tolley KC to conclude his investigation into the alleged bullying ways of Dominic Raab suggests that there was a great deal to investigate, with purported incidents stretching back some years to Mr Raab’s tenure at the Foreign Office and as Brexit secretary. Mr Raab has always denied the charge of bullying, but his allies have conceded that he is a hard taskmaster. Some political friends, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, claim that Mr Raab’s critics are simply snowflakes, unable to handle themselves in the crucibles of Westminster and Whitehall.

This attempt to trivialise the complaints against Mr Raab has been proceeding for some months. It is safe to assume that Mr Tolley will not have been distracted by such talk. His job was to “establish the facts” and report to the prime minister, who is, according to Mr Tolley’s terms of reference, “the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards”. It’s worth noting the shameful fact that Mr Tolley had to carry out the work because Mr Sunak and his predecessors hadn’t appointed a replacement for the last ethics adviser, Sir Christopher Geidt, by the time an inquiry into Mr Raab had become unavoidable. Sir Christopher had quit because Mr Johnson wouldn’t let him do his job properly. It was a telling episode.

As the “ultimate judge”, Mr Sunak should act with speed and decisiveness. His verdict needs to be swift. It is difficult to see why there should be any undue delay, just as it is equally clear that Mr Raab had a formidable case to answer. It is true that Mr Raab was Mr Sunak’s leadership campaign manager, and was reappointed as deputy prime minister after the brief Truss interregnum. However, Mr Raab’s record as a minister has been indifferent, and so much so that his failures during the evacuation of Kabul forced his demotion from the Foreign Office and a return to the Ministry of Justice. Justice in the case of Mr Raab seems to be being delayed. The fact that civil servants in the Ministry of Justice have threatened to leave if Mr Raab isn’t removed complicates the decision, but also confirms that this a matter of unusual delicacy.