A small reshuffle happens and Dominic Raab stays in office. And, if the test for whether he should stay in office is whether it has been found he broke the ministerial code, so he should. In contrast to the Nadhim Zahawi case, establishing whether Raab broke the ministerial code by bullying his officials is not a straightforward matter. With Zahawi, once someone was in possession of the details of when HMRC had started to ask questions about his tax arrangements (April 2021) and his subsequent ministerial declarations of interests (“nothing to see here”), there was little room for interpretation.
Determining whether Raab’s treatment of his officials constituted bullying (which is explicitly prohibited under the code) is a more complicated and contentious matter. Raab maintains he behaved appropriately; quite a few officials maintain that he did not. A KC, Adam Tolley, is investigating and, on the specific point of adherence to the ministerial code, it is right to wait until he has completed his enquiries.
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