PMQs: Starmer and Sunak clash over Raab bullying allegationson February 1, 2023 at 1:26 pm

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have clashed over the bullying allegations against Deputy PM Dominic Raab.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour leader accused Mr Sunak of being “too weak to do anything about it”.

The prime minister insisted he was following “due process”.

And on a day when hundreds of thousands of public workers were on strike, he accused the Labour leader of failing to stand up to union bosses or for Britain’s schoolchildren.

Mr Raab, who is also justice secretary, took his customary place alongside Mr Sunak on the government front bench. He has denied bullying civil servants.

Earlier a civil service union leader called for Mr Raab to be suspended while the allegations were investigated.

FDA general secretary Dave Penman told the BBC: “If that was any other employee… they would in all likelihood be suspended from their job.”

Mr Sunak has said he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry, being carried out by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC, before taking any action.

Sir Keir asked whether Mr Sunak was “going to claim that he’s the only person completely unaware of serious allegations of bullying against the deputy prime minister before he appointed him?”

The prime minister replied that when he was made aware of formal complaints, “I instructed a leading independent KC to conduct an investigation because I take action when these things happen”.

He contrasted his approach with that of Sir Keir to claims by Labour MP Rosie Duffield that Labour was failing to stand up for women in the party on transgender issues.

“If he is so concerned about what people are saying and so concerned about behaviour in public life, then recently one of his own MPs was forced to speak out because being in his party had reminded her of being in an abusive relationship.

“And then his own office was caught undermining her. He ought to be supporting her and her colleagues, but if he can’t be trusted to stand up for the women in his party, he can’t be trusted to stand up for Britain.”

The Labour leader said Mr Raab was facing 24 separate allegations of bullying and added that “according to recent reports, some of the complainants were physically sick. One says they were left suicidal”.

“How would he [the prime minister] feel if one of his friends or relatives was being forced to work for a bully, simply because the man at the top was too weak to do anything about it?,” he told Mr Sunak.

Mr Sunak again turned his fire on Sir Keir, saying the Labour leader had admitted at the weekend that hate had been allowed to spread unchallenged in the party under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

“He was speaking as if he wasn’t even there. But he was sitting right next to him, supporting him for four long years, not challenging. And it’s typical of him, declining to lead, sitting on the fence, carping from the sidelines and never standing up for a principle that matters,” said the prime minister.

Sir Keir hit back, accusing the Conservatives of having an “addiction to sleaze and scandal”.

Mr Sunak replied: “He can’t stand up to his union bosses, he can’t stand up for Britain’s schoolchildren today and he can’t stand up for the women in his party.”

The bullying complaints relate to Mr Raab’s previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May.

At least three senior civil servants who worked with Dominic Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour as witnesses.

The BBC has been told one is Philip Rycroft, who ran the Department for Exiting the European Union when Mr Raab was Brexit secretary.

Another, the BBC understands, is the current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Antonia Romeo.

A third permanent secretary from a department in which Mr Raab served has also told the BBC they have been interviewed as a witness.

Permanent secretaries are the UK’s most senior civil servants and run government departments.

It is understood Mr Raab has had an initial meeting with Mr Tolley, but has not yet sat down with him for a substantial conversation about the allegations against him.

Last week, the deputy prime minister told the BBC: “I’m confident I behaved professionally throughout, and of course the government takes a zero-tolerance approach to bullying.”

Mr Raab added that he was “always mindful of the way I behave”, but made “no apologies for having high standards”.