Good morning. An astonishingly long article by Liz Truss – with her first post-premiership interview coming later on Monday - is probably the most immediate irritant for Downing Street today, but once No 10 is done picking the bones out of that, they have another serious problem on their plate that just won’t go away: the future of the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab.
Stories about Raab’s alleged bullying of government officials have been rumbling on for months – and they simply keep coming. After a week of additional allegations, the Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday that an unnamed serving cabinet minister now felt that his position had become untenable. “Raab has got to go,” they said, adding that they had “heard too much” from civil servants claiming “that he’s an absolute shit”.
The allegations – which are the subject of an inquiry, and are strongly denied by Raab – are a political nightmare for Rishi Sunak. But they also pose important questions about the line between rigorous management and bullying in a high-pressure environment, and about how seriously the government takes the welfare of the staff working on its behalf. Today’s newsletter, with the Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot, is a primer on what you need to know. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Turkey earthquake | More than 300 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria, with the toll expected to rise, after one of the most powerful quakes to hit the region in at least a century. Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors trapped under the rubble after the tremor, which was felt in Lebanon and Cyprus. For the latest, follow the live blog here.
Strikes | Deadlock over NHS pay is putting patients in danger and risks hardening the position of unions, 10 chief nurses have warned on the eve of the biggest strikes in the health service’s history. Nurses and ambulance staff both strike today and tomorrow before further NHS walkouts on Wednesday and Friday.
Police | Hundreds of police officers in the UK should never have been appointed, the head of the police watchdog has said, after his team reviewed hiring practices and found dishonesty on applications from serving officers and undeclared “red flags”. HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr also said that there was a “culture of misogyny” within the service.
UK news | The headteacher of a prestigious private school in Surrey has been found dead alongside her husband and daughter. Emma Pattison, the head of Epsom College, was found at the school along with her husband, George, 39, and seven-year-old Lettie on Sunday morning.
Grammy awards | Beyoncé has become the most awarded artist in Grammys history, winning four awards on Sunday night to bring her total to 32. Harry Styles won album of the year for Harry’s House and Adele won best pop solo performance for Easy on Me.
In depth: Why the Dominic Raab story won’t go away
***
What are the allegations against Dominic Raab?
The recent spate of stories are not the first time that Dominic Raab has faced questions about his behaviour. In 2018, his former diary secretary Rebecca Tott – who had recently lost her job over allegations she met men though a “sugar daddy” website – told the Sun he was a “bully” who reduced colleagues to tears.
Raab called those claims “false and malicious” and “an attempt to cash in”. But the new allegations, which began to emerge after his reappointment as justice secretary when Rishi Sunak became prime minister, “are very different, partly because there are so many of them,” said Jessica Elgot, who somehow found time to speak despite also fitting in the endurance test of that 4,000 word Liz Truss essay.
In November, the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar reported that senior civil servants in the justice department had been offered “respite or a route out” over claims that Raab was “demeaning rather than demanding” and “a bully”. Then the Sun came out with the memorable – if contested – claim that he threw tomatoes from his Pret salad around “in a fit of rage”.
The next day, the Observer reported sources saying that concerns over his behaviour had also been raised during his time as Brexit secretary. Rishi Sunak said he didn’t “recognise that characterisation of Dominic”, and added: “I’m not aware of any formal complaints about him.” (Keep that word “formal” in the front of your mind.)
Within a few days, Sunak had appointed an independent investigator after Raab wrote to him saying he had “just been notified that two separate complaints have formally been made against me”.
If the intention was to put the story in the deep freeze, it hasn’t worked. Complaints kept coming, and in January, sources put the number of civil servants involved in formal complaints at 24. That figure that has since risen.
***
What do we know about the alleged victims’ stories?
The inquiry is reported to have heard that some of the staff working under Raab had to be signed off sick, and that some were even suicidal. And while most people working in government understand that a stressful environment is inevitable, the Raab allegations appear to go beyond that, Jessica said.
“It’s quite hard in general to find people who say how terrible their minister is,” she said. “You usually hear quite complimentary things. The complaints allege that with Raab, it wasn’t just about making the work better, it was a kind of powerplay that undermined people.”
One of the complaints, which the Observer revealed yesterday represents the concerns of 27 Ministry of Justice officials, claims that staff felt under such pressure that some “have visited their GPs, and some have subsequently been signed off work for extended periods of time.” Last week, the Mirror published anonymous accounts of staffers losing weight, having breakdowns, and feeling like they were in a “controlling and abusive relationship”.
Saturday’s Times (£) carried a raft of further anonymous accounts, with some saying that Raab relished “the imbalance of power” with younger staffers. One of the reporters behind that story, Henry Zeffman, said he was “taken aback” by the nature of the stories and their sheer number – “lots we couldn’t include because of space limitations,” he said on Twitter.
***
What do Raab’s defenders say?
They tend to view the allegations as an eyeroll-inducing overstatement of behaviour that might be robust, but does not reach the level of bullying.
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested that the claims might be “snowflakey”. Lord Lister, formerly Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, said that Raab was “not an easy man” but that he had never seen him be a bully, and added: “I’m of an age where you used to express yourself completely, whatever you thought.”
Yesterday, transport secretary Grant Shapps told GB News that “from personal experience I’ve only ever seen him being very polite” and characterised him as someone “very determined … who knows what he wants to get out of the system.”
Raab, for his part, has strenuously denied the claims, and said via a spokesman that he simply “sets targets … to focus relentlessly on delivery”.
“Some people who know him are outraged on his behalf,” Jessica said. “And there are plenty of Tories who see him as the victim of attacks by politically motivated civil servants.”
***
What does it mean for Sunak?
Let’s go back to that word “formal”. One of the reasons the story kicked up a gear last week, prompting suggestions that Raab’s position now appeared seriously under threat, was the question of exactly what Sunak knew when he appointed him – and whether he had information that fell short of knowledge of “formal complaints”.
On Wednesday, the Times reported that officials had highlighted “issues” with Raab (£) in his ministerial roles. At PMQs, Labour leader Keir Starmer asked Sunak: “Is he saying his officials hid this information from him, or was he just too incurious to ask any questions?” No 10 was repeatedly asked what Sunak knew after that, but stuck to the line that he “was not aware of any formal complaints”. Make of that what you will.
The politics of the affair are extremely difficult for Sunak, who would be loath to lose another minister so soon after the firing of Nadhim Zahawi, and must balance maintaining his authority with his promise of “integrity and accountability” when he took office.
And, Jessica said, he has a longstanding relationship with Raab – indeed, she pointed out, he was quoted defending his colleague when that 2018 story from the former diary secretary emerged.
“Raab really put his neck on the line for him during the leadership race with Truss,” she said. “He went out and was very critical and he knew that could cost him a place in a Truss cabinet. Sunak owed literally nothing to Zahawi – he backed Truss, then he wrote an article calling for ‘Boris 2.0’. This is different.”
***
What happens next?
There have been suggestions – strongly denied by Raab – that he could resign before the inquiry concludes; Sunak appears likely to await the report before making a decision, and the number of complaints suggest that it could be some time before it is resolved.
“One of the big problems for Raab is the fact that Sunak has said that he will do things very differently,” Jessica said. “There’s a really direct comparison with the Priti Patel case” – where Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser resigned because the prime minister overruled his finding that Patel had broken the ministerial code with “behaviour that can be described as bullying”.
Partly because of that unfortunate precedent, many Conservatives are sceptical about Raab’s long-term prospects. Jessica added: “Every MP you speak to privately says that they believe that he’s toast.”
What else we’ve been reading
After Sunday night’s last ever episode of Happy Valley (above), Lucy Mangan gives it a five star review, calling it (tonal spoiler here, I guess?) “brutal, tender, funny, compelling and heartbreaking to the last”. For more on the show’s remarkable creator, Sally Wainwright, it’s well worth revisiting Rebecca Nicholson’s terrific 2019 profile for the long read. Archie
Two months of protests and mayhem have left Peru in the middle of a political crisis that has left its cities looking like war zones. Tom Phillips is, as usual, brilliant in this dispatch from Juliaca, where he talks to the people enduring this upheaval. Nimo
Amelia Tait’s feature on the rise of the extremely organised home is a great read (particularly for those of us who cannot maintain a tidy house for more than one day). Where has this incessant urge to decant and label everything come from? Nimo
On that epic and largely unrepentant Liz Truss essay: Jessica Elgot’s analysis explains that while she is “keen to re-enter the political fray”, the bigger question is: “is anyone actually interested in a comeback?” Archie
Even though it is not due to happen for another 20 months, the race to the US presidential election has well and truly started. David Smith takes a look at the Republicans taking on Donald Trump as he gears up for a third campaign. Nimo
Sport
Premier league | Harry Kane (above) described becoming Tottenham’s all-time record scorer with 267 goals as a “dream come true”. The striker achieved the milestone – surpassing the late, great Jimmy Greaves in Spurs’ history books – with the decisive moment in their 1-0 win against Manchester City. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest beat Leeds 1-0.
WSL | It was a frustrating afternoon for Manchester United Women, after the team drew 0-0 with Everton, resulting in the team losing their top spot of the Super League. United missed a number of huge opportunities to score, allowing Chelsea to overtake the team after their 3-2 victory against Tottenham.
Rugby | France were just about able to avoid a shock defeat against Italy in the Six Nations, securing a 29-24 victory at the Stadio Olimpico. Meanwhile, England coach Steve Borthwick has complained that the side he inherited from Eddie Jones “weren’t good at anything” after they lost the Calcutta Cup to Scotland on Saturday.
The front pages
The Guardian leads with “Chief nurses warn over deadlock on NHS pay” while the Mail has “No wonder the NHS can’t afford Union pay demands!”. The Times says “‘Delusional’ Truss will cost votes, Tories fear”, while the Telegraph goes with “Truss to challenge PM over China”, and the Metro has “She still doesn’t get it” alongside a picture of the former PM. The FT leads with “Beijing slams US for downing balloon in further strain on frayed relations.”
The Mirror leads with the search for Nicola Bulley, with the subheading “Door cam pics of Nicola” above the headline “One hour later she vanished.” The Express has “Nicola’s family hurt by ‘vile’ theories”. The Sun’s splash reads “Er, Dad … I had Harry in a field”.
Today in Focus
After 17 years in prison, will Andrew Malkinson finally clear his name?
Almost two decades ago, Andrew Malkinson was accused of a rape where the victim was left for dead. He has always maintained his innocence and his supporters say the case against him was fatally flawed. Now he hopes new evidence will show he was not guilty.
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
In 2017, Christian Lewis (above), a former paratrooper, was struggling. His mental health was deteriorating as he grappled with acclimating back to normal life, as well as dealing with single parenthood and financial worries. It was only when his daughter decided to leave home at the age of 16 that he had an epiphany – and walked around the entire coastline of the UK to figure himself out.
Over the last five years, Lewis’s life has transformed. While the initial experiences were gruelling, he found that his foraging skills improved and, crucially, that he could rely on the generosity of strangers to help him along the way.
Lewis has racked up 112,000 followers on Facebook and raised more than £277,000 for SSAFA, an armed forces charity that supported him during his hardships. He met his wife on his journey in 2020, with whom he now has a son, and, with their dog, they have become a solid support for Lewis.
Perhaps most importantly, making this life-changing leap has profoundly changed the way Lewis sees himself in the world: “We have a very small possibility of living a life on this planet and you’ve just got to bloody make the most of it. End of.”
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
