Good morning. You might have thought, when Dominic Raab resigned on Friday because an investigation into bullying claims found that he had been “intimidating” and “unreasonably and persistently aggressive”, that his departure would represent a complete defeat. How else to interpret the conclusions from an independent KC that serious allegations against the deputy prime minister and justice secretary were true, and Rishi Sunak’s affirmation that it was right for Raab to go?
But in the days since, Raab and his allies have managed to sow a very different narrative, about “activist” and “over-unionised” officials. Now, even as former UK civil service chief Lord Kerslake warns today that Sunak needs to speak out against the “torrent of invective against the civil service”, the chief conclusion from a finding that Raab intimidated civil servants appears likely to be: it’s the civil servants’ fault.
