Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Is Dominic Raab really a ‘bully’?

(Credit: Getty images)

Who is the real victim in the Dominic Raab bullying saga? I know the story is that he was a monster in his various departments, allegedly barking instructions and wagging a finger at his stressed-out minions. But the anti-Raab revolt smacks far more of bullying to me. Civil servants clubbing together to drum an exacting minister out of his job? It definitely has a whiff of Mean Girls to it.

Raab has resigned as deputy prime minister following the findings of an investigation into his alleged bullying. In his resignation letter he says the investigation dismissed all but two of the accusations against him. The findings are ‘flawed’, he says. They potentially set a ‘dangerous precedent’. If ministers are not able to give ‘direct critical feedback’ – a euphemism for stern criticism, perhaps – they won’t be able to do their jobs properly, he said.

He has a point. None of us knows for sure what went on under Raab’s rule first in the Foreign Office and later in the justice department.

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