Raab Resigns: 'PM too weak to deal with issues' - Rayner

I feel so sorry for the people who have had to endure months of laying out the allegations against Dominic Robb and then Rob resigning the way he did this morning, which is incredibly challenging for a resignation that accepts the report's findings and you already know. to the prime minister he says he's unbelievably sad well I'm unbelievably sad the prime minister can't take the necessary steps to protect the civil servants who are trying to make their day and it makes everyone feel like they know the prime minister is

weak

and he doesn't see bullying in the workplace as he did seriously with the previous prime minister who allowed one of the cabinet ministers to bully someone who was found to have breached the ministerial carbon for bullying and was allowed to continue in his Quite a different job, although he received the report yesterday and this morning there is a resignation from Dominic Robb, so you could say he acted quickly and decisively.

I would say that is not the case because of course the prime minister was aware of the allegations. against Dominic rub before he was appointed to the cabinet, we've had three there were allegations, although they weren't there and could have been investigated and that could have been

deal

t with before appointing someone to a major important post and now we see even now with the resignation this I challenge this lack of self-awareness about what you have actually done you are well aware of the threshold for bullying if you have been found bullying that is bullying there is no threshold for bullying you know it is completely unacceptable to frame it that way and if I If I were one of those victims this morning who is unable to speak due to the process I would be absolutely devastated and it sends the wrong message to the rest of the public servants who have to have confidence that they can raise concerns and can work in the interest of our country and if you have a prime minister who is too

weak

to

deal

with these

issues

, so to me that will lead to risks around governance in terms of being able to raise the use of

issues

and present what is best and what is in the interest of the Civil Service and these people know their job they know it's you know it's not a matter of oh it's their interpretation these people are senior officials they know the job they're doing and I think it's completely wrong that Dominic Brad thinks he can frame it this way and that the prime minister says "i'm so sad you're leaving well you shouldn't have appointed him in the first place we understand that that report has now been released as as soon as we can give you details we'll get some coats to give you an analysis of it um , now he was effectively his counterpart, he was pitted against him many times, um, what was his sense of the man and his behavior I mean to me he was my political opponent he was my political peer so you know the equilibrium relationship of power is different than if you're working you know if you work for me if you work for a senior eh minister like the deputy Prime Minister then there's an imbalance of power immediately there so you need to be self-aware about relationships and conduct in the workplace me and dominic are politicians and we clash strongly in the dispatch box and that's different but when you're taking advice. when you work with public officials, that's a different relationship and you have to be aware as a leader about the conduct that you put out that you know you carry out in the office because you set the culture and for all those people to show up not one or two many people they came forward despite what happened earlier, where a public official came forward and lost their job after it was discovered that they had been intimidated, it must have been a lot of bravery for them to come forward and so I don't think they this is an interpretation of someone running an office it's clear those people felt there was harassment and the fact that Dominic Rabb has resigned tells me even in his Challenge that he knows there is something there your reading of this Dominic Robb he said if he was found for intimidation he would resign, do you get the feeling he voluntarily submitted that resignation or did the prime minister force his hand?

I don't get the feeling that the Prime Minister or Dominic Rabb understands the seriousness of that report and the findings. there seems to be a huge lack of self-awareness within him around the intention that a higher level should have known that his actions would have been perceived that way and how that affected people and there was no apology, it's like a slap on the cheek. back oh you did a good job no sorry good it was a oh i have done a great job terrible the process was horrible for me in domineering rabbs um and rishi sunax respond was your conduct was not below standards this is terrible we have to have the highest standards was you did a great job which by the way i would say that is not the case in fairness but it was actually enlightened look at all these wonderful things you have done thank you im so sad you You go that report it's very clear that the Deputy Prime Minister of this country harassed and intimidated people in his workplace if they were if they were victims of that harassment today they would feel that even though Dominic Rabb has resigned that there is no um awareness and no acknowledgment of what happened or ability to correct it just over 24 hours later, he was gone.

I imagine he was possibly not even in the office today, which may be a relief to some of the civil servants who were working for him. the action has taken him well, he left quickly and the ministerial code changed, he did not have to be fired if he could have been sanctioned in a different way, so you could argue that this is Rishi sinak um bringing Bear exactly what he promised in the Downing Street integrity and accountability steps, what it seems to me is that they have tried to pre-empt the release of the report because when you listen to what Sam Coax was reading in that report, that's pretty damning, so the resignation of Dominic came choreographed with Rishi.

Suna acts without acknowledgment of what happened here just uh oh you've done a great job and the whole process isn't quite right without acknowledgment of the substantive issues within that report so it's almost like trying to harm limit what what happened here, I don't see that Dominic Rabb's resignation has integrity, he hasn't fought for his actions, he hasn't recognized what he's done in his resignation and I don't see that acknowledging the prime minister's resignation does justice to those people who they have stood up to intimidation and they acknowledge what happened here and what he has allowed because of course he knew about these allegations before I appointed him and even now with that report I don't think the prime minister has responded to this in the way you would expect. a leader responding when that level of misconduct has occurred in a senior um Dominic Raab in his op-ed in the telegraph um writes about uh how he feels the process has been unfair normal rules didn't apply he says a lot of these complaints they should have timed out because of the three month time limit for filing bullying complaints and then you say that they then came forward in a coordinated manner what is your response to that have you ever had the feeling with public officials that that That kind of situation can't come up if I mean you didn't bring Dominic Rabb back into the cabinet in the first place and that's where the trigger was for a lot of people who were relieved that he wasn't there that that wasn't going to be the case.

In any case, it's pretty clear that as soon as they brought him back to the cabinet, these people were afraid of him coming back to the workplace and they raised it. I don't think that's a problem. I think if you look at the context in which these people presented themselves as well as I said before the former prime minister allowed a cabinet member to intimidate a senior official and the cabinet member kept his job and the official had to go to even though they were the ones who were harassed. for officials under that context to bring these accusations I would say this is not a matter of coordination, it must have been incredibly brave of them and very scary for them to bring those accusations out in the context but they obviously believed what Rishi sunak said and that he wanted to move forward as prime minister with this integrity and with these values ​​and we have seen that actually that has not been the case and I think his letter to Dominic Rabbit is absolutely disgusting and fails to recognize seriousness. of what has happened