Dominic Raab has insisted he behaved appropriately as Deputy Prime Minister and blamed a few “very activist civil servants” for his downfall.
In an interview with BBC political editor Chris Mason just hours after he resigned from Cabinet after an inquiry found he was “intimidating” and “aggressive” towards officials, Mr Raab accused “activist civil servants” of trying to block the work of government.
He said there was a risk “a very small minority” of officials “with a passive aggressive culture” were trying to block reforms they did not like.
He defended his behaviour saying “I’m sure I’ve made mistakes...if the threshold for bullying is so lowered that picking people up on bad work...if we can’t do those things it will ultimately be the public who pay the price.”
Downing Street has appointed Oliver Dowden as Deputy Prime Minister, replacing MrRaab who resigned earlier in the day following the report into claims he bullied colleagues.
The Cabinet secretary moves up to become Rishi Sunak’s right-hand man, while Alex Chalk has been named the new Justice Secretary in a dramatic day of political upheaval for the government.
Mr Raab, who was also the Justice Secretary, fired off an angry letter as he quit the Government around 24 hours after Mr Sunak had been handed the report by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC.
In his investigation Mr Tolley found Mr Raab acted in an “intimidating” fashion with “unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct” in a work meeting while he was Foreign Secretary.
The report is a 47-page document.
