Dominic Raab's Rebarbative Barb

At last! A Tory politician follows through by making good on a promise! When Dominic Raab was forced to announce and inquiry into multiple bullying allegations made against him by civil servants, he pledged to stand down if the investigation found against him. It did, and Raab's ministerial career is in the bin. Until Rishi Sunak recalls him to cabinet, which could be as short as six days if Suella Braverman's reappointment is anything to go by. But because this is the Conservative Party, having a dignified exit is never the done thing.

In a resignation letter Raab posted to Twitter, he turned on his accusers. He said the inquiry's findings were "flawed" and "set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good government". Refusing to accept that there was any substance to the allegations, he goes on: "Ministers must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions ... setting the threshold of bullying so low ... it will encourage spurious complaints against ministers ... [there was] systematic of skewed and fabricated claims to the media ...". Where civil servants suffered it was an accidental by-product of his exuberance for the job, and besides their snowflake feelings got in the way of Delivering the Priorities of the British People, so shouldn't be taken too seriously. And for good measure, in his interview with Chris Mason, Raab said the problem lay not with him but "activist civil servants" who were against the government's agenda. Imagine how much worse the criminal justice system would be if they hadn't done some strategic bed blocking.

Raab is a pretty repugnant character, and knows there can never be a rebuttal from those against whom he lays his charges. And so his resignation is staged as ritualistic self-sacrifice. The end of career came by his own hand, but an unseemly keenness to claim the mantle of conservative victimhood meant it was others who forced it. This is far from the language of contrition but of grudge-bearing, and one that feeds into Tory mythologies of woke officialdom and blobs of socialist subversives that have the state machinery in their vice-like grip. Undoubtedly, attacks on the civil service - always badged under the guise of "reform" - will be in the culture war box of tricks ahead of the next election.

Where does this leave Rishi Sunak? Not too damaged, as it happens. He has moved swiftly to replace Raab with Alex Chalk and Oliver Dowden, both with strong biceps from carrying the Prime Minister's briefcase for years. Readers might recall Dowden disgraced himself with a ridiculous speech about wokeness. Funny how Sunak keeps appointing these culture warrior arseholes. And Chalk, at least, used to be a top solicitor so is well placed if Sunak wants to pivot toward his delivery, delivery, delivery pitch and get him to do something about the dreadful courts backlog. But this rapid move follows weeks of paralysis. The Raab saga has hardly tarnished Sunak's government because events (dear boy) are doing a bigger, more comprehensive job. But letting the Raab saga drag on in typically Johnsonian fashion reminds us that political risks and political costs are never at the forefront of Sunak's mind. It might not matter now, and the Raab story will be as memorable for most punters as last week's weather forecast, but it reminds us that the Prime Minister has the habit of leaving rakes scattered about him and standing on one will give his government a bloodied nose sooner rather than later.

Image Credit