Dominic Raab: he reckons he has never raised his voice in a meeting, and denies all other bullying accusations against him. Do you believe him?

Rishi Sunak has performed a snap reshuffle of his Cabinet, splitting some departments to reflect his priorities (he says).

Good for him. But I have to question some of his decisions and motives.

Look at his new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (which isn’t even a clear explanation of what it is. Net Zero refers to the plan to get the UK down to no carbon dioxide emissions, but that’s not what it says).

The stated aim is “securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation” – but we know that absolutely no work will be required on the last aim because inflation will halve this year in any case. This is just a bid to take credit where it isn’t due.

Then there’s the appointment of nonentity Greg Hands as Tory Party Chairman, tasked with running the local election campaign (among other things). Is this a tacit admission that the Tories have no chance?

And what about the decision to make “30p Lee” Anderson vice-chairman? The apparent homophobe and transphobe who reckoned it was possible to cook a meal for 30p. This is barrel-scraping at its worst.

Check out this analysis from A Different Bias for more insight:

Dominic Raab stays in place as Justice Secretary and Deputy PM.

And Sunak made this decision on the day it was revealed that yet another bullying accusation has been made against Raab.

According to the BBC,

A former senior civil servant who worked closely with Dominic Raab has described his behaviour as “nasty and difficult”.

In an anonymous interview with BBC Newsnight, he accuses the deputy prime minister and justice secretary of using “demeaning tactics to make himself the most powerful person in the room”.

The former civil servant – who has not made a formal complaint against Mr Raab – told the BBC, “I saw him seething at other senior people, hard staring at you, you know like cold fury.

“It was pretty sinister – and raising his voice. He would make examples of very senior members of staff in front of more junior members and vice versa.”

When challenged on whether this was bullying or just a secretary of state being direct and assertive while doing an important job, the person said they had no doubt it was “unacceptable behaviour”.

“No, it’s bullying. I mean, the worst thing is the sort of the cold anger and making people wait in silence.

“Expecting people to turn up very, very quickly without knowing really why they’re there. Treating his private office with contempt and doing so publicly.

“There were long silences, which if you tried to continue speaking he would tell you to wait or stop talking.

“And he would expect everyone to have the answers to all his questions even when he wanted information on topics outside of the knowledge of the people in the room. He would get cross with his private office on these occasions for not ensuring all the right people were in the room”, he said.

Who’s got time for that kind of nonsense?

If anyone told me to sit in a meeting in silence I’d assert that, since nobody had anything to say, I’d get back to my job – and leave.

But that’s just me, I suppose.

The decision to leave Raab in post betrays a serious failure of judgement on Sunak’s part. It suggests that, if Raab is forced out eventually, Sunak may have to go too.

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