Dominic Raab has resigned as deputy prime minister after a damaging report into claims he bullied civil servants was finally published.
The findings of Adam Tolley KC’s independent probe landed on the PM’s desk on Thursday morning, but the results were not initially revealed.
In a punchy resignation letter, Mr Raab, who has denied allegations of bullying, said he felt “duty bound” to accept the outcome of the inquiry.
But he also took aim at the inquiry, described its findings as “flawed” and saying it had created a dangerous precendent by setting the threshold for bullying “so low”.
Despite criticism overnight, including from his own mininsters, over Mr Sunak’s delay in deciding his fate, No 10 sources said the prime minister did not tell his deputy to resign.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Sunak of “indecision” and “weakness”. “Why didn’t he sack him?” he asked.
But the prime minister also faced an almost immediate backlash from his own backbenchers over Mr Raab’s disputed departure.
One Tory MP tweeted in response to Mr Raab’s letter: “We are not a serious country”.
In his letter, Mr Raab claimed that the report’s findings would “encourage spurious claims against ministers” from within Whitehall.
He said the probe had had dismissed “all but two” allegations against him, he added.
And he suggested that he had been the victim of a witch hunt.
He said that he had raised with Mr Sunak “a number of improprieties that came to light during the course of this inquiry”.
“They include the systematic leaking of skewed and fabricated claims to the media in breach of the rules of the inquiry and the Civil Service Code of Conduct, and the coercive removal by a senior official of dedicated private secretaries from my Ministry of Justice private office, in October of last year. I hope these will be independently reviewed,” he wrote.
In a staunch defence of his actions he said ministers had to be able to “exercise direct oversight with respect to senior officials over critical negotiations conducted on behalf of the British people, otherwise the democratic and constitutional principle of ministerial responsibility will be lost.”
This was particularly true during his time as Foreign Secretary, he said, when “in the context of the Brexit negotiations over Gibraltar… a senior diplomat breached the mandate agreed by Cabinet.”
He added: "Second, ministers must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions to senior officials in order to set the standards and drive the reform the public expect of us. Of course, this must be done within reasonable bounds.
"Mr Tolley concluded that I had not once, in four and a half years, sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone.
"I am genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice. That is, however, what the public expect of ministers working on their behalf."
But he added: “I called for the inquiry and undertook to resign, if it made any finding of bullying whatsoever. I believe it is important to keep my word.”
Tory MP Philip Davis agreed with Mr Raab, saying the findings would encourage “spurious complaints against ministers”.
But Sir Keir accused Mr Raab of “whining”. He added: “I don’t know why Dominic Raab, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, thinks that anybody wants to hear about his whining about having to resign.“What I think everybody wants is strong leadership and that has been palpably absent here.”
The deputy PM has been under investigation since November over eight formal complaints about his behaviour as foreign secretary, Brexit secretary and his first stint as justice secretary.
Mr Sunak ordered Mr Tolley to launch an investigation after widespread reports of unnamed civil servants described his behaviour as bullying.
Mr Raab was accused of causing staff to break down in tears or throw up before meetings. The minister was also accused of chucking Pret-A-Manger tomatoes across a room in a “fit of rage” – a claim he denied.
The leader of the FDA civil service Dave Penman said some staff who worked with the senior Tory minister had suffered “mental health crises” and had been forced to quit and downgrade jobs because working with him too difficult.
Mr Tolley is said to have been “thorough” in his handling of the investigation, having interviewed Mr Raab multiple times and spoken to or taken written evidence from a number of others senior figures.
Senior officials at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) were said to be preparing to quit if the PM chose to keep Mr Raab in government because it would be “demoralising” for staff.
“If he stays in the department, senior people will want to walk,” one official told The Guardian. Another said some would get ready to “leave in the near future”.
It emerged in the heavily delayed register of ministerial interests on Wednesday that Mr Raab had forked out for his own legal team to defend himself against the allegations.
The decision to pay for his lawyers came despite the taxpayer footing an estimated £222,000 bill for Boris Johnson’s legal fees in the Partygate inquiry into whether he lied to MPs.
Mr Sunak said in November that he “was not and am not aware of any formal complaints about Dominic’s behaviour” – but refused to say whether he knew of informal warnings about Mr Raab before appointing him.
More follows on this breaking news story
