Dominic Raab: look at those eyes, those hands, the set of his face. Could you believe a man like that could be a bully?
This is odd: Dominic Raab appeared on a TV show where he was asked about the bullying allegations against him – but ducked the questions by saying it was improper to discuss them while an inquiry was going on.
Even when talking more broadly about the issue, he was unconvincing.
Here’s Maximilien Robespierre’s appraisal of it:
The points are good; he never even said bullying is unacceptable.
Perhaps, having been appointed on the basis of loyalty to the leader rather than merit, he simply didn’t think he owed it to anybody working for him to have a respectful relationship with them?
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Wow. At least 24 civil servants have now complained about bullying by Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, it seems.
Not only that, but there are also inquiries into the behaviour of Nadhim Zahawis (another Cabinet member) and Boris Johnson, a former prime minister.
Rishi Sunak and his Cabinet were apparently having an away day in Chequers to discuss Conservative Party strategies – despite the fact that Parliament was sitting and they were using government property – so one wonders whether he was taking the opportunity to clear the chaff. One suspects not, because he’s too weak.
Enjoy also the pathetic attempt at deflection onto Keir Starmer by Angela Epstein. She reckons he’s not a good leader because he supported Jeremy Corbyn, and brought up the manufactured Labour anti-Semitism crisis as proof. But anti-Semitism in Labour fell under Corbyn – the claims against him were nonsense. Starmer is a rotten leader for reasons entirely due to himself.
As Kevin Maguire points out about her comments: “We’ve got a lousy rotten governent so look over there.”
Here’s a bit more on that Tory strategy meeting, courtesy of A Different Bias:
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Dominic Raab: he asked for an official investigation into bullying complaints against him – and now increasing numbers of civil servants are making fresh allegations.
He might be innocent, of course.
But that would require us to believe that senior civil servants were running a campaign against Dominic Raab – and that would be a very odd thing for such responsible people to do.
Then again, if they think it’s the best thing to do for the country…
The debate could run on and on.
Here’s the latest development, courtesy of the BBC:
Deputy PM Dominic Raab is facing fresh bullying complaints from senior civil servants across multiple government departments, BBC Newsnight has learned.
A number of Mr Raab’s former private secretaries – senior officials who work most closely with ministers on a daily basis – are preparing to submit formal complaints, sources told the BBC.
There is now a coordinated effort by former private secretaries of Mr Raab to ensure their allegations are heard as part of the investigation.
Mr Raab requested an investigation into his own conduct towards staff in the wake of two earlier complaints.
He denies any allegations of bullying.
The allegations against Raab first emerged earlier this month:
The Guardian has reported that staff in the Justice Department were offered “respite or a route out” amid concerns that some were traumatised by his behaviour during his previous stint:
The Guardian has spoken to multiple sources in the MoJ who claimed that Raab, who first held the post between September 2021 and September 2022, when he was sacked by Liz Truss, had created a “culture of fear” in the department.
They alleged that his behaviour when dealing with civil servants, including some in senior roles, was “demeaning rather than demanding”, that he was “very rude and aggressive” and that he “wasn’t just unprofessional, he was a bully”.
It is also understood that Antonia Romeo, the MoJ permanent secretary, had to speak to Raab when he returned to the department to warn him that he must treat staff professionally and with respect amid unhappiness about his return. One source, who was not in the room at the time, claimed she had “read him the riot act”.
The government has appointed Adam Tolley KC to investigate two formal complaints made about Raab’s conduct.
But final judgement on whether Raab has breached the Ministerial Code will lie with prime minister Rishi Sunak – as it did with Boris Johnson when Priti Patel was accused.
Johnson ignored the evidence and allowed Patel to continue as Home Secretary. Will Sunak show the same corruption?
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Gavin Williamson: he resigned rather than allow bullying accusations against him to be investigated in full view of the public. Now Dominic Raab has also been accused. But how many other government ministers are also presiding over a ‘toxic work culture’?
Civil servants have made complaints about bullying by “several ministers” – not just Dominic Raab and Gavin Williamson – but the current system is not adequate to mount a proper investigation, it has been claimed.
Dave Penman, head of the FDA union that represents civil servants, said he had received multiple complaints about several ministers in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government – but the “toxic work culture” can’t be adequately addressed by current procedures.
As he explains to Sky‘s Kay Burley, he has written to Sunak, calling for reforms to allow proper investigation of complaints against ministers:
As you can tell from the clip, Mr Penman was not interested in bandying around gossip about particular individuals, saying – rightly – that any complaints should be substantiated before they are publicised.
But the allegation is there: bullying is apparently prevalent in not just one or two but several government departments.
After failures by previous prime ministers – notably Boris Johnson, who defended Priti Patel in the face of the evidence – there isn’t even an independent investigator in place.
Sunak will need to be seen to act quickly on this matter.
But will he? Or is this yet another episode in which he’ll prove himself to be weak?
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Dominic Raab: if he’s innocent he’s got nothing to worry about, right?
For those of you who don’t know – and that included me until a few minutes before I started typing this – Big Jule is a gangster in the musical Guys and Dolls who boasts about being arrested 33 times but never convicted. It seems Dominic Raab may be the Tory equivalent.
He is currently accused of bullying civil servants in the Justice Department during his first term in office there, from September 2021 to September this year.
But it’s not the first accusation of bullying against him, as Jolyon Maugham explains in the following Twitter thread. Bear in mind when you’re reading this that these accusations were not proved:
Back in 2011, before the Mail on Sunday became arguably the moat mendacious newspaper in the country, it carried an article about Dominic Raab for which Raab sued it. 🧵
The Mail also alleged that Raab's behaviour would have been gravely embarrassing if it had become public and the Tory party instituted a cover up and paid £20,000 in hush money to keep his appalling behaviour secret.
The judge refused to help the Mail by busting the confidentiality agreement. And, whether for that reason or another, as we can see from a subsequent Information Commissioner's decision, the Mail had to apologise and withdraw their article. pic.twitter.com/TYfnpLmvPG
The same ICO proceedings show that a similar allegation was made about Raab when he was a junior Housing Minister. Those allegations were also denied, albeit in a particularly revolting way. pic.twitter.com/onOVrt0r3r
I guess, if you excluded everyone embroiled in sex scandals, ethical or criminal investigations or bullying accusations, there wouldn't be enough Tory MPs to fill the Ministerial posts. That's why they have to keep going back to bottom-feeders like Raab, Braverman and Williamson.
For clarity’s sake, let’s be clear that this is not a “no smoke without fire” situation. Raab cannot be said to be a bully just because he has been accused twice before.
But the fact that these accusations were made provides valuable context in which to set the current claims.
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Gavin Williamson has resigned as Minister Without Portfolio in the Tory government, saying he did not want to become a distraction from its work.
He also said he wanted to clear his name from the bullying claims that have dogged him for the last few days.
As ITV’s news anchor Tom Bradby said, reporting the resignation, there might still be time for him to appear on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here along with former Conservative colleague Matt Hancock. Indeed, stranger things have happened this autumn.
Williamson’s last Cabinet role ended when he was sacked as Education Secretary in September last year.
At the time, I wrote the following:
England’s education system is (momentarily) stronger with the announcement that Gavin Williamson has been sacked from his post as the minister in charge, as part of a Cabinet reshuffle by Boris Johnson.
His two-year tenure stands as testament to the fact that having no Education Secretary is better than having him in the role.
Incompetent Williamson’s failures are fast becoming the stuff of legend, with the headline disasters well-known to all of us:
In 2020, when A-level students could not take their exams because of Covid-19, he used a algorithm to allocate marks – that was rigged to make it seem that privately-educated pupils were more intelligent than the riff-raff from the state system that he ran.
He later tried to force disadvantaged, black and minority ethnic children in England to take exams when other kids didn’t have to, claiming that they respond better to examination conditions. It seemed clear racism – an attempt to put these children down with duff results.
He made it clear that the government expected all schools to open as normal in January this year – then closed them after just one day because prime minister Boris Johnson ordered a new lockdown and he was unaware of it.
He decided to foist Latin as a subject onto state school pupils, rather than anything useful. At the time I wrote: “Having killed the economy with Brexit and enormous numbers of the population with Covid-19, the Tories now want us all to learn a dead language.”
He also wanted a clampdown on indiscipline in schools after the return from Covid-19 lockdown – but provided no evidence whatsoever to support his wild claim that our children had gone feral.
Before Boris Johnson gave him the bullet, it was suggested that Williamson would blame school pupils and parents if Covid-19 infections spike after the start of the school term.
Prior to that, he was Defence Secretary under Theresa May – but was sacked from that job too.
In May 2019, I wrote:
Theresa May has sacked Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary, saying she has “lost confidence in his ability to serve in the role of defence secretary and as a member of her cabinet”.
It appears he is to take responsibility for an embarrassing leak from the National Security Council, stating that Huawei is to take a contract to help provide the UK’s 5G network, despite concerns over spyware funnelling information to the Chinese government.
But was he really to blame?
Mr Williamson himself is on the record as swearing on his children’s life that he had nothing to do with the leak.
But it seems an inquiry run by Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill has found that he was responsible for the leak, which has angered the United States government, which has banned Huawei from government networks and pressurised the UK to do the same.
Alternatively, some have suggested that the US is simply protecting its interests, saying Huawei provides better service than American firms.
According to The Independent, Mr Williamson is said to believe his firing was “politically motivated”.
It has also been alleged that Williamson was knighted on the wishes of Boris Johnson because he knew of connections between Johnson and Russia that the former prime minister wanted to keep quiet.
So there are certainly a lot of claims about Williamson. Did he ever clear up those previous allegations? Not as far as This Writer is aware.
Will he clear his reputation of this new stain on it?
Well, what do you think?
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Gavin Williamson: will he be smiling after the latest accusations against him have been evaluated?
Schools across the country will be taking part in an annual Anti-Bullying Week from November 14-18 – and it seems to have arrived a little earlier for accused Minister Without Portfolio Gavin Williamson.
The week’s events are based around a theme of reaching out to somebody you trust for help against bullying.
The publicity material states: “Whether it’s in school, at home, in the community or online, let’s reach out and show each other the support we need. Reach out to someone you trust if you need to talk.
“it doesn’t stop with young people. From teachers to parents and influencers to politicians, we all have a responsibility to help each other reach out.”
It seems someone in Westminster has already taken this advice – as it relates to politicians – and reached out with new accusations against Williamson.
According to the BBC,
Sir Gavin told a senior civil servant to “slit your throat” and “jump out of the window” when he was defence secretary.
An unnamed official told the Guardian Sir Gavin, who is now a Cabinet Office minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, “deliberately demeaned and intimidated” them.
The official said they raised concerns to the Ministry of Defence’s human resources department but made no formal complaint.
Williamson has not denied using the language mentioned in the accusation.
But he has issued a statement: “I strongly reject this allegation and have enjoyed good working relationships with the many brilliant officials I have worked with across government.
“No specific allegations have ever been brought to my attention.”
Others appear to have already formed their own conclusions. Professor Tim Wilson’s is persuasive:
“He has no idea of the connection between the things he says and the meaning they have.
“There seems to be a gap between what people say and what they think they mean, so people are quite free with their stories and their fantasies and their threats and they don’t realise that these are taken seriously by the people who hear them.”
In fact, this may be an extremely charitable appraisal!
But Prof Wilson does go on to say that Williamson isn’t the only person in Westminster indulging in offensive language: “This is a culture of nastiness; it’s a culture of bullying and it needs to be exposed and rooted out.
“Every minister tainted with bullying needs to go.”
In an interview with Kay Burley on Sky News, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride may have made matters worse by referring to Cronus, the Tarantula spider that Williamson kept in his office when he was Tory Chief Whip.
He said the threat was there but Williamson had never released the arachnid to bite anybody – which seems unhelpful against allegations of bullying:
It is good to note that an investigation into Williamson’s words to Wendy Morton (another now-former Chief Whip) are now the subject of an official investigation, which This Writer understands is being overseen by the Independent Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone.
She’s the official who Boris Johnson wanted to de-fang and force to resign after Owen Paterson was accused of corruption late last year.
Let us hope she performs her duty to the limits of her ability to do so.
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Sunak and Williamson: the image is from before Williamson was Education Secretary. Why is Sunak now dragging his heels instead of sacking Williamson from his current job?
Embattled Minister Without Portfolio Gavin Williamson has not apologised to former Chief Whip Wendy Morton after sending her a series of abusive messages, according to friends of hers.
We now know that Ms Morton complained to the Conservative Party about his conduct on October 24. It is now two weeks later and party authorities have not confirmed whether they have launched a formal investigation and neither MP has been informed of any inquiry, as would be required if the party process were being followed.
Ex-Conservative Party Chair Jake Berry has said he told Rishi Sunak of the complaint on the day it was made.
Controversy has arisen because Sunak subsequently made Williamson a Cabinet minister.
Morton handed Williamson’s messages to the Conservative Party on October 26, two days after she made her complaint – but Sunak insists that he did not see them until they were published in The Sunday Times yesterday (November 6).
Do you believe that? It’s possible, but seems unlikely to This Writer.
Meanwhile, Williamson’s only comment seems to have been to the newspaper, stating, “I of course regret getting frustrated about the way colleagues and I felt we were being treated.”
Sunak has said the comments were “not acceptable” but 10 Downing Street has insisted that the prime minister still has confidence in Williamson.
Why would he?
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Unrevealing: Chris Bryant took this image in an attempt to show bullying in the voting lobbies – but it did not demonstrate such behaviour clearly enough. Should he have taken video? And would it have mattered, knowing that photography is forbidden there in any case?
After a woefully inadequate ‘investigation’ ruled that there was no bullying during the controversial ‘fracking’ vote that led to the downfall of Liz Truss, whistleblowing MP Chris Bryant has insisted that the verdict was wrong.
He has tweeted the following:
I believe that what I saw last week in the division lobby was intimidating behaviour. The Serjeant is right. It was fraught and crowded. I feel it was intimidatory. I realise others see it differently but I still think parliament needs to
I will continue to work with everyone in parliament to tackle bullying, intimidation and sexual harassment so that it is a safe space for all. And I won’t ever abandon that campaign.
The prohibition of photography in the voting lobbies must be a gift to anybody wishing to intimidate MPs. Elsewhere on the Twitter thread, Bryant agreed that CCTV cameras would be welcome:
I disagree. Big I agree we could have cameras in the lobby
The answer, of course, is to modernise the system with electronic voting, as is used in the devolved governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Doesn’t the reluctance to introduce such a system smell of corruption to you?
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Tense scene in the voting lobby: Labour MP Chris Bryant tweeted this image as the fracking vote was taking place.
Are we all greatly reassured by the words of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle?
He seems to think that the words of one Conservative MP are enough to prove that nobody was bullied into backing the government during a controversial vote on fracking a couple of weeks ago, that ended up bringing down Liz Truss’s government.
According to a BBC report,
Labour MP Chris Bryant said he witnessed “clear bullying” in the division lobby of the House of Commons during the vote on 19 October.
But one Conservative MP, Alexander Stafford, rejected the claims, saying he had a “frank and robust conversation” with members of the government outside the voting lobbies but “nothing more”.
Sir Lindsay told MPs: “… While some members thought that physical contact was being used to force a member into the lobby, the member concerned has said very clearly that this did not happen.”
I can’t say I’m convinced.
The impression I had was that both Jacob Rees-Mogg and Therese Coffee had been accused of manhandling Tory MPs – plural – into supporting the then-government’s line that fracking should be allowed to resume in the UK. Relying on the words of just one member – referring to what happened to them alone – seems very poor evidence-gathering indeed.
Perhaps it isn’t important now. Truss is out of Downing Street and the new administration under Rishi Sunak has said that fracking will not resume after all.
But if we can’t trust that investigations of wrongdoing in Parliament are thorough and fair, then what should we think of any such matters in the future?
Looking to the future, it seems clear that the archaic voting system at Westminster, in which members physically walk through lobbies, has had its day.
The devolved governments in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland all have electronic voting systems.
To prevent even the suggestion of physical bullying, it’s time the same system was introduced to the Houses of Parliament.
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