Top officials working for Dominic Raab are said to be ready to quit if the deputy prime minister is cleared of bulling, with Rishi Sunak set to decide his future within the next 48 hours.
The result of the independent investigation into Mr Raab’s behaviour is expected to land on Mr Sunak’s desk by the end of the week, and could even be released as soon as Thursday.
Senior officials at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are preparing to quit if the PM chooses to keep Mr Raab in government because it would be “demoralising” for staff, according to The Guardian.
“If he stays in the department, senior people will want to walk,” one official told the newspaper, while another said some would get ready to “leave in the near future”.
One person involved in the process described the report by Adam Tolley KC as “devastating” while a senior government official said Mr Raab was “toast”, according to the Financial Times.
Mr Tolley is said to have been “thorough” in his handling of the investigation, having interviewed Mr Raab multiple times and spoken to or taken written evidence from a number of others.
Mr Raab has been under investigation for months over eight formal complaints about his behaviour as foreign secretary, Brexit secretary and during his first stint as justice secretary.
The deputy PM and justice secretary denies allegations. He has insisted he believes “heart and soul” that he is not a bully while defending his “forthright” approach to his work.
Unnamed civil servants have accused Mr Raab of causing staff to break down in tears or throw up before meetings. The minister was also accused of chucking Pret-A-Manger tomatoes across a room in a “fit of rage” – an episode he denied.
The Tolley report is not expected to offer a verdict and will leave Mr Sunak to assess whether Mr Raab’s behaviour amounts to bullying and merits punishment. But Mr Raab has said he will resign if a bullying claim is upheld.
It emerged earlier on Wednesday that the minister had forked out for his own legal team to defend himself against the allegations.
The declaration in the heavily delayed register of ministerial interests came despite the taxpayer footing an estimated £222,000 bill for Boris Johnson’s legal fees in the Partygate inquiry into whether he lied to MPs.
In the register, Mr Raab’s entry notes read: “The minister has engaged lawyers at his own expense in relation to the investigation being conducted by Adam Tolley KC.”
It remains unclear why he paid for his own lawyers when Mr Johnson – whose outside earnings since leaving office have made him the highest-paid MP over the past 12 months –received government support.
Former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry has hit out at the “outdated” system for dealing with complaints in Westminster which has allowed Mr Raab to continue in his job while under investigation.
Sir Jake told ITV’s Peston show on Wednesday night it was “wrong” for Mr Raab to continue in his job while facing bullying allegations. “It’s a massively outdated system that isn’t what our constituents would expect of any of us.”
The senior Tory, who served in the cabinets of both Boris Johnson and Theresa May, said: “It does seem to me quite wrong that when people are under these kinds of investigations of this type that they continue in their job.”
He added: “Whatever the outcome is, and we’re going to find out tomorrow, I actually think there’s a fundamental rethink required about how we deal with these sorts of allegations, both in government made against ministers and made against members of parliament.”
Mr Tolley was appointed in November to lead the investigation into Mr Raab’s conduct but it is not known when Mr Raab first engaged legal representation.
Mr Raab’s team did not respond to the reports on Wednesday apart from to suggest it would be inappropriate to comment on the investigation before it had been completed.
