Angela Rayner has used a deputy leaders’ outing at prime minister’s questions to mock Dominic Raab for the claims of bullying against him, asking Raab if he will “walk before he’s pushed”.
In often bad-tempered exchanges between the pair, Raab – who denies he has bullied officials – referred to Rayner’s description of Conservatives as “scum”.
The pair were appearing at PMQs while Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer attended the funeral of Betty Boothroyd, the first female Commons speaker.
Rayner, who used her questions to focus on the government’s record on crime, highlighted this week’s announcement of measures to curb antisocial behaviour, using this as a chance to focus on the multiple claims of bullying and abusive behaviour made against Raab by civil servants in a series of departments.
“I’ll give him some credit,” Rayner said. “The deputy prime minister knows first-hand the misery caused by thugs and their intimidating behaviour, working with menace, exploding in fits of rage, creating a culture of fear and maybe even throwing things. Under his new antisocial behaviour plans, does he think more bullies will be brought to justice?”
Referring to comments made by Rayner before the Labour conference in 2021, for which she later apologised, Raab replied: “I can reassure the house I’ve never called anyone ‘scum’.”
The rest of the exchanges saw Rayner follow Starmer’s lead from recent weeks in highlighting the government’s record on crime, notably delays to court cases and low charge rates for rape and other sexual offences.
“It’s not just his department where antisocial behaviour is running out of control. It’s happening across the country,” Rayner began, saying ministers had overseen a steep decline in the numbers of neighbourhood police.
“No one believes that there are more police on the streets and no one feels safer,” Rayner said. “Women feel unsafe on Britain’s streets, always looking over our shoulder as we hurry to our front door. So can he tell me: under his watch as justice secretary, what is the charge rate for rape?”
After Raab talked instead about an increase in convictions, Rayner said he was “too ashamed of the answer”, which was that 1.6% of reported rape cases are charged.
Rayner went on: “A woman goes through the worst experience of her life. She summons up the courage to re-live that horrendous experience, to tell the police in detail about her assault, but she only has a 1.6% chance of action being taken.”
She asked Raab to apologise for this and for what she said was a typical three-year gap for rape trials to be completed. Raab did not, instead saying the pandemic and strikes had exacerbated legal delays.
“Not a word of apology, no sense of responsibility and not even a shred of shame,” Rayner said, noting that with a formal inquiry into the bullying claims against Raab expected to report soon, it “might be his last PMQs”.
She said: “The reality is, while people in Britain feel more and more unsafe, he seems to spend all of his time trying to save his own job and none of his time on his actual job.
“The largest court backlog on record. Rape victims waiting for justice. And through it all, he managed to rack up 24 formal complaints from his own civil servants. So can he say today: will he walk before he’s pushed?”
Raab replied by accusing Rayner of resorting to the “bluster of political opportunism”.
