Raab, who was a former foreign minister but was recently reappointed as justice minister and deputy prime minister, is the subject of an investigation into allegations of bullying, first revealed by the Guardian. They have led to the questioning of Rishi Sunak’s judgment in bringing him back to the cabinet. In new allegations, a Ministry of Justice official told the Guardian that a May 6 meeting of deputy directors working on policy, which was ostensibly to discuss the performance of Raab’s private office, “degenerated into a 45-minute discussion about the [the deputy directors’] experiences of being bullied by Raab’. They said that while the deputy directors praised the private office’s performance, all had witnessed — and in one case were subjected to — alleged bullying by Raab. The official added: “There was a long discussion to clarify that his behavior crossed the line from honest to unprofessional. An assistant director relayed the extraordinary information that, when Raab was in the [the] FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), people had died when advice on the evacuation of Afghanistan was delayed because he didn’t like the formatting.’ Raab has previously faced criticism for his role in the chaotic evacuation of Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul in August last year while on holiday in Crete. In evidence to the foreign affairs committee, whistleblower and former FCDO official Raphael Marshall said Raab took “hours to deal with” when he was asked to personally approve exceptional cases and returned files asking for them to be submitted in a different spreadsheet format. Marshall said he believed the delay meant some people never made it to Kabul airport. Other officials confirmed to the Guardian and Observer that Raab is very specific about the formatting of the documents. He was demoted from Foreign Secretary to Minister of Justice shortly after the evacuation of Afghanistan, but became Deputy Prime Minister at the same time. The Justice Department official who attended the May 6 meeting also claimed that Raab showed up an hour late to meetings with very senior civil servants because he was at the gym. He claimed the lord chancellor had “hit and belittled” officials in meetings for no apparent reason, including shouting at one of their colleagues in the first few minutes of his first day covering in his private office because he was unable to immediately answer a specific question . After he was sacked as justice secretary and deputy prime minister by Liz Truss when she became prime minister, Sunak reappointed him to both roles when he joined No 10. Last month, the Guardian revealed that senior civil servants at the Ministry of Justice had been offered “sabbaticals or an out-of-department route on his reappointment amid concerns that some were still traumatized by his behavior during his previous tenure. Labor responded to the latest allegations by reiterating its call for an independent review of FCDO culture. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “This is yet more evidence to suggest that Dominic Raab created a toxic culture at FCDO which could have put lives at risk during the disastrous evacuation from Afghanistan. “Rishi Sunak’s weakness has led him to reward this alleged abhorrent behavior by appointing him as deputy chief minister. The idea that Sunak cares about standards in public life is a farce.” The Guardian understands that Raab denies all the allegations and insists that any slowdown in evacuations was not caused by concerns about the quality of the documents submitted to him. He is believed to have helped successfully remove 17,000 people from Afghanistan in the months before the Taliban took over. Raab is also understood to deny claims that he has ever missed a meeting by going to the gym, as he is said to instead use his lunch break to exercise and disputes when he raised his voice, was victimized or belittled officials. He has told MPs he has conducted himself professionally throughout his career. After Marshall’s testimony, Raab denied all of his allegations and said of the redacted comments that he “didn’t apologize for saying that I needed the straight facts of each case presented accurately.”
