United Kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister Raab resigns: accused of bullying

Dominic Raab, Rishi Sunak’s deputy prime minister and justice minister in the United Kingdom since last October and former number two of Boris Johnson, has resigned. The long wave of the scandal for the alleged bullying to which he allegedly subjected his collaborators in his past experiences as minister and undersecretary has overwhelmed the 49-year-old member of the Conservative Party. In November, when after a month and a half of purgatory during the meteoric government of Liz Truss Raab had returned to Deputy Prime Minister and Justice, the Guardian had reported the background of the warning from the ministry’s chief of staff, Antonia Romeo, on the invitation Raab to treat employees better than previously. Anonymous voices had spoken to the historic newspaper of the British left of a “humiliating and demanding” Raab who towards officials was “very rude and aggressive”. Raab’s career and investigations The explosion of a series of investigations has revealed a chain of complaints by former subordinates of Raab for his behavior in other departments. Raab, a Tory MP since 2010, was Minister of State for Housing Policy in 2018, British Government Minister for Brexit Implementation from 2018 to 2019 and Foreign Minister from 2019 to 2021. A dazzling career accelerated by his clear support for Boris Johnson and Brexit policies, of which he was a real “hawk”. Positions that led him to be the number two in the country, a loyal BoJo and de facto replacement for the head of government when in April 2020 he found himself hospitalized in serious condition due to Covid-19. The Guardian recalls that “a counter-spin campaign by Raab’s allies presented the Minister as a man who could be a difficult and unsympathetic boss, but was also a politician who worked long hours and expected very high standards”. There was no evidence of particularly harsh abuses, only leaks that however compromised Raab politically. “Kafkaesque inquiry”: Raab strikes backRaab entrusted his comment on the affair involving him to an editorial published in the Telegraph, underlining that “the United Kingdom will pay the price for this Kafkaesque inquiry” in the form of a collapse in the scrutiny capacity of the policy on civil servants: “the British public expects ministers to exercise rigorous oversight of civil servants to prevent Democratic mandates from being scrapped, up the game of underperforming parts of government and prevent Whitehall from squandering taxpayers’ money.” A complex case. Which signals how even in the Sunak era the “curse” of those who most ardently supported Brexit and then found themselves entangled in political crises that arose from personal and human problems continues. Why the Conservative Party is in crisis It has been said about Johnson and Partygate. La Truss, a new convert with missionary zeal to the cause of the break with Brussels, was overwhelmed by a disastrous political agenda. Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been hit with harsh accusations for his handling of Covid-19, and let’s not forget that the gravestone on the Johnson government, in July 2022, was the scandal of Chris Pincher, the chief whip and his faithful ally accused of sexual harassment. Raab is just the latest in a long line. And the political chaos that not even Sunak manages to stem and which overwhelms the Conservative Party is reflected in increasingly unforgiving polls that certify a very wide gap on the part of Labour. The political vote is over a year and a half away (it will be between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025), but in the meantime the Tories have to face a Via Crucis. The upcoming local general elections see the Conservatives expecting a severe beating. Moreover, notes the Financial Times, “the British economy, which suffers the second worst drop in living standards on record, will be the worst in 2023 among the G20 economies, with the exception of Russia. The exports of goods of the Great Britain are the worst performers in the G7 Foreign investment has fallen since 2016. Despite Brexiters pledging more money for the NHS, more than one in 10 Britons are now waiting for hospital treatment, the most since registrations began. Life expectancy for the poorest people has gone down.” The political crisis of yesterday’s hawks like Raab comes as the criticalities of Brexit are on the surface. And in the coming months, more news of this kind could inhibit the Tories from any hope of a comeback to continue the thirteen years of government experience that began in 2010.