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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Andrew Quinn

Rishi Sunak chooses allies to replace Dominic Raab after Tory Deputy PM resigns

Rishi Sunak has promoted two close allies to replace Dominic Raab after he was found to have bullied staff.

Tory junior defence minister Alex Chalk is the new Justice Secretary and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden will take over the role of Deputy Prime Minister.

Raab resigned from his two roles after an inquiry found he acted in an intimidating and aggressive way towards officials in behaviour that could have amounted to bullying.

Chalk has been an MP since 2015 and has served as a junior justice minister previously. He first joined the Government in Februrary 2020.

Dowden first moved into Government in January 2018 and has held several significant roles, including culture secretary. He also became an MP in 2015.

The move was part of a small reshuffle, with Chloe Smith covering for Science Secretary Michelle Donelan while she is on maternity leave.

Labour shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said that Chalk was the “11th Conservative Justice Secretary in 13 chaotic years that have destroyed the justice system”.

He added: “Real change can only come with a Labour Government."

Raab resigned on Friday morning after a report found he had acted in an "intimidating" way with "unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct".

Raab accepted the report's conclusions but criticised the "threshold for bullying" for being "so low" in his resignation letter to Sunak. He said that it "will encourage spurious complaints against ministers and have a chilling effect on those driving change."

He had been a key member of the Government, serving for several years and supporting Sunak in his two attempts at the party leadership.

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