Dominic Raab has blown £320,000 on PR advisers as he attempts to cling on to his job.
The Ministry of Justice, which is led by the Deputy PM, has brought in marketing experts from outside Whitehall.
The department has signed a contract worth £320,000 with PR agency Manning Gottlieb. Its role will include helping to fight off negative stories.
According to documents, the work will include “support in answering ad-hoc requests for information, comment and evaluation from ministers” including “tight-turnaround media rebuttals”.
The Ministry of Justice insisted the deal was not for Mr Raab personally and was ‘a contract for advertising prison officer jobs’.
Officials working for Mr Raab have told how he is obsessed with the media coverage he receives. He sets targets for his aides, including on how often he appears on TV.
The Tory, who is nicknamed “The Incinerator” because of the rate at which he “burns through” staff, is currently being investigated over bullying claims.
An official probe, conducted by a top lawyer, is examining eight formal complaints about his behaviour as a minister.
Labour ’s shadow justice secretary Steve Reed last night said: “It is staggering to learn that Dominic Raab is blowing hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to salvage his ailing reputation following a wave of bullying allegations.
“During a cost-of-living crisis where many are struggling to put food on the table, and with the justice system on its knees, it is perverse that Raab choses to waste money pandering to his own vanity.”
But the Ministry of Justice said it was “completely false” to suggest the PR contract was linked to Mr Raab’s bid to salvage his reputation.
A spokesman for the department said the firm is helping with work to boost prison officer recruitment, which is unrelated to the bullying allegations against him.
They said the tendering process closed in July before the claims against him emerged.
Mr Raab was ousted from the Justice department when Liz Truss became PM in September but returned as Justice Secretary just seven weeks later when Rishi Sunak entered No10.
Civil servants have complained about his behaviour towards them with warnings he has created a “climate of fear” in his office.
But despite his high expectations, the Mirror revealed last month that he skives off work every afternoon to go to the gym.
Staff in the department have dubbed him “Dumbbell Dom” as he demands at least an hour is blocked out in his ministerial diary each day so he can work out in a private gym in the basement of the Ministry of Justice.
Officials have said that they are forced to stay at their desks late into the evening to fit around the minister’s fitness routine in the middle of the working day.
Asked if the PR firm had been hired to salvage Mr Raab's reputation, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “This is completely false as it’s a contract for advertising prison officer jobs.”
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