Lawyer appointed to investigate complaints about Dominic Raab’s conducton November 23, 2022 at 3:16 pm

The government has appointed Adam Tolley KC to investigate complaints made about the conduct of Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab.

Mr Raab asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to launch an investigation into his own conduct after allegations about his behaviour towards staff.

Downing Street said Mr Tolley’s report will be published “in a timely way”.

Any final judgement on whether Mr Raab was in breach of the ministerial code will remain with Mr Sunak.

“The prime minister will remain the arbiter of the code,” the PM’s official spokesman told reporters.

Mr Tolley specialises in commercial and employment law. He represented HM Revenue and Customs in a High Court case against three BBC News presenters, which resulted in them having to pay back tens of thousands of pounds in tax.

As an independent investigator, he has been asked by the government to “establish the specific facts” about two formal complaints against Mr Raab.

The complaints relate to Mr Raab’s conduct when he was foreign secretary and later justice secretary under Boris Johnson.

Mr Raab was sacked as justice secretary and deputy prime minister by former PM Liz Truss when she took power in September.

But the Esher and Walton MP was reappointed to both roles by Mr Sunak following his election as Conservative leader by the party’s MPs.

The complaints about his past behaviour first emerged in The Guardian, which said it had spoken to multiple sources who claimed Mr Raab had created a “culture of fear” at the Ministry of Justice.

Lord McDonald, the former top civil servant at the Foreign Office, then went public with claims that many colleagues were “scared” to go into Mr Raab’s office when he was foreign secretary.

“It was language, it was tone, he was very curt with people,” Lord McDonald told Times Radio, “and he did this in front of other people, people felt demeaned.”

Mr Raab denied the allegations but when formal complaints were lodged against him, he asked Rishi Sunak to launch an inquiry into his own conduct.

He has said he will “thoroughly rebut and refute” the claims against him.

The government promised Mr Tolley “will have access to all the information he wishes to see” and that his report will be made public.

There is a separate process under way for the government to recruit an independent adviser on ministerial interests.