Dominic Raab's has decided to step down as an MP at the next election after his ministerial career was torpedoed by a bombshell bullying report.
The former Tory heavyweight resigned as deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary following a probe into allegations over his conduct from civil servants.
Mr Raab, who deputised for Boris Johnson when he was in hospital with Covid-19, has now decided he won't contest the next election, citing the pressures of the job on his young family.
The Esher and Walton MP may not have fancied a scrap with the Lib Dems for his affluent Surrey seat, which he clung on to in 2019 with only a slim majority.
Mr Raab has held a string of top jobs but is also a divisive figure. Before the bullying allegations came to light, he also sparked controversy with his remarks on food banks, feminism and taking the knee.
His response to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, which unfolded while he was on holiday, was heavily criticised.
During his time in Government, he also admitted to not understanding the importance of the English Channel for trade and was forced to deny paddle boarding during an international crisis.
Mr Raab also told MPs he hadn't read the Good Friday Agreement in full - despite having been Brexit Secretary responsible for coming to an arrangement with the EU over Northern Ireland.
Here we look at some of his most controversial moments.
Failing to understand how important the Channel was for trade
Mr Raab was widely mocked for remarks he made while he was Brexit Secretary.
Speaking to tech industry leaders at an event in November 2018, he admitted he didn't realise how important the Dover-Calais crossing was to trade.
It came as Theresa May's Government was wrangling over an exit deal with the EU amid dire concerns about the impact on UK businesses.
Mr Raab said: “I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this, but if you look at the UK and look at how we trade in goods, we are particularly reliant on the Dover-Calais crossing.
“And that is one of the reasons why we have wanted to make sure we have a specific and very proximate relationship with the EU, to ensure frictionless trade at the border.”
Claiming the sea 'was closed' while defending himself over fall of Kabul
Mr Raab, while Foreign Secretary in 2021, came under fire over his response to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
He remained at a five-star resort in Crete despite a huge scramble by Brits and those who had supported Allied forces to escape.
After a report surfaced claiming he had been paddleboarding, he fumed: "The stuff about me lounging around on the beach all day is just nonsense.
"The stuff about me paddleboarding is just nonsense. The sea was actually closed, it was a red notice.
"I was focused on the COBRA meetings, the Foreign Office team, the director and the director general, and international engagement."
Lashing out at 'feminist bigots' and saying men get 'raw deal'
Soon after becoming an MP, Mr Raab penned an article that he would still be defending more than a decade later.
The then-backbencher wrote in Politics Home: "Feminists are now amongst the most obnoxious bigots."
He also claimed: "From the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal. Men work longer hours, die earlier, but retire later than women."
It won him a powerful critic in the form of Theresa May, then Home Secretary, who accused him of fuelling "gender warfare".
In 2019 he told the Andrew Marr Show that he stood by the position saying it was “really important that in the debate on equality we have a consistency and not double standards and hypocrisy”.
'Stupid and offensive' foodbank claim
Mr Raab sparked a huge backlash after claiming that people who use food banks aren't "languishing in poverty" but have a "cashflow problem".
During an appearance on the Victoria Derbyshire Show in 2017, he said: “Look, in terms of the food bank issue, I’ve studied the Trussell Trust data.
“What they tend to find is the typical user of a food bank is not someone who’s languishing in poverty, it’s someone who has a cashflow problem episodically.”
Then-Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the comment was "stupid and offensive", adding: “Dominic Raab is woefully out of touch and has no idea how much real people are struggling.
“We are seeing nurses, police officers and the just-about-managing having to go to food banks as their pay cheque won’t stretch any further. People are hurting and the Tories, with comments like this, show they just don’t care.”
Taking the knee 'like Game of Thrones' anger
In 2020 Mr Raab defiantly claimed he would only take the knee “for the Queen and the Mrs when I asked her to marry me” during worldwide protests about George Floyd's murder.
The Tory frontbencher said: “I’ve got say, on this take the knee thing – which, I don’t know, maybe it’s got a broader history but it seems to be taken from the Game of Thrones – feels to me like a symbol of subjugation and subordination, rather than one of liberation and emancipation.
"But I understand people feel differently about it, so it’s a matter of personal choice.”
Among those who criticised him were Labour's David Lammy, who said: “This is not just insulting to the Black Lives Matter movement, it is deeply embarrassing for Dominic Raab. He is supposed to be the foreign secretary of the United Kingdom.”
Nicknamed 'The Turnip' over EU exit 'naivety'
It was claimed that EU officials nicknamed Mr Raab 'the turnip' during negotiations over the UK's exit deal.
An insider told The Telegraph that the name - a play on the Dutch word raap - came after Michel Barnier called his bluff over the Irish border.
The source said: “Barnier told Raab that he would tell the member states the UK wanted to blow up the negotiations and didn’t give a s*** about the Irish border.”
They continued, “Raab backed down. He chickened out. Which shows he was a naive negotiator. You should never make a threat you are not able to back up.”
Mr Raab's team denied the claim, claiming it was him who "pushed the hardest".
Admitting he hadn't read Good Friday Agreement
In 2019 Mr Raab admitted to MPs that he hadn't read the Good Friday Agreement in full, even while negotiating with the EU on the Irish border.
He told the Northern Ireland Select Committee the landmark document is "not like a novel, you sit down you say 'do you know what over the holidays... this is a cracking read".
Instead he used the 32-page document as a "point of reference".
Botching tribute to Paul O'Grady
Mr Raab appeared to confuse Paul O’Grady with Larry Grayson or Grayson Perry as he paid tribute at PMQs earlier this month.
The Deputy PM, who was standing in for Rishi Sunak, got muddled as MPs celebrated the TV and radio star following his unexpected death.
Mr Raab told the Commons that “Paul Grayson was an incredible comic”, before he was interrupted by heckles.
Getting Red Sea mixed up with Irish Sea
During his time as Brexit Secretary, Mr Raab was speaking to the Exiting the EU Committee in July 2018 when he confused which sea separates Britain from Ireland.
The minister insisted there would be no "border down the Red Sea" after Brexit.
Unfortunately the Red Sea runs from the Suez in Egypt to Yemen.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson joked at the time: "You can draw as many borders down the Red Sea as you want, I don't mind."
NHS words come back to haunt him
Mr Raab was skewered on a live radio in 2019 as a BBC presenter brought up a 2011 book in which he and others called for more private providers in the NHS.
He was confronted after he blasted claims the Tories could end up with more private firms or higher drug prices in a US trade deal.
Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I can tell you categorically I've never advocated privatisation of the NHS."
The 'health' chapter of a book he co-authored in 2011 said: "The current monolith should be broken up.
"Hospitals should be given their independence, extending the Foundation Hospital model - initially controversial but now almost universally accepted.
"New non-profit and private operators should be allowed into the service and, indeed, should compete on price."
When challenged by Nick Robinson, he said: "Yes, I co-authored - I think there were five of us in total."
But he suggested his remarks were just about coffee shops and florists - despite no mention of them in the 2011 book.
