‘People are feeling jumpy’: civil servants feel the strain as Raab inquiry drags on

Many in the MoJ say it would be a ‘huge surprise’ if Dominic Raab ended up staying in post. Photograph: James Manning/PA

From the outside, it looked like business as usual at the Ministry of Justice this week. The department pressed the button on Operation Safeguard, telling police chiefs to make their custody cells available for inmates because the prisons were too overcrowded.

Officials were also busy working on the forthcoming victims bill, which aims to improve victims’ experiences of the criminal justice system, with the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, said to be keen to be “on the front foot”.