Yesterday evening, Sky News revealed the latest in the long-line of dramatic lobby-driven allegations against “coercive” arch-villain Dominic Raab. They use whistleblower-esque video of anonymous actors filmed in poorly-lit rooms to convey the gravity of the situation – with the anonymous sources – read leftie civil servants – accusing Raab of showing “quiet fury”. Buried half-way through the video piece, Beth admits her anonymous sources “weren’t bullied by the Deputy Prime Minister themselves”…

Amongst the other allegations lodged against the Justice Secretary was the claim he would “adapt his behaviour depending on the person” and that officials would be “nervous about going into meetings with him” for fear of an “unpleasant encounter”. The testimony adds that Raab’s victims “wouldn’t complain”. You have to wonder why.

The claims go further. Although Beth’s sources admit “he wouldn’t shout”, in this case, his crime was far worse. His victims allege “The vein would be pumping on his head and he would look like he was about to explode.” Just shocking.

In the wake of all this, Raab has the unfortunate job of facing questions on this morning’s media round, even with the government’s announcement of tougher sentencing for domestic abuse, no prizes for guessing where their attention was focused. So far, he has stuck to a refusal to comment, though Sky News did get him to admit he “absolutely” has high standards in the workplace:

“I think if you’re in any walk of life, the media, in sport, CEO of a big business, let alone in government, you want to set high standards because that’s how you deliver.”

We can’t have that…

In a swift turn of events, Rosena’s second bullying accuser has suddenly changed his mind. Not long after going to pixel, Lukey Stranger tweeted to expressly deny making a “formal” complaint against Rosena – something which we did not suggest. Following the article’s publication, he has – for some reason – changed his recollection.

Guido reported yesterday, in Stranger’s own words, that he was shamed and humiliated by Rosena such that he was left “in floods of tears and bereft of words”. Apparently what he meant to say was working for her was the “happiest and proudest time of my life and she showed me nothing but compassion and kindness”. Whilst Lukey now absolves “indomitable” Rosena of responsibility, he maintains a complaint against Sean Lawless, who is still employed in her office.  Guido is happy to correct the record.

Before reporting on allegations of bullying against Labour’s Shadow Mental Health Minister, Guido contacted the Labour press office, who issued a categoric denial. Labour denied there were any investigations and insisted no formal complaints were raised – based on the evidence Guido provided. Well… Guido has since received hard evidence that formal complaints were lodged. Co-conspirators can read the full email below…

Labour press maintains their position – that there was no formal complaint – was consistent. Based on the fact no investigation arose directly from the tweets initially presented and that complaints are only carried forward once significant evidence is presented. Guido will let co-conspirators be the judge.

Rosena faces another allegation of bullying behaviour: activist Lukey Stranger alleged that online harassment left him “in floods of tears & bereft of words”.

Labour demanded Dominic Raab be suspended when he faced bullying allegations and claimed that “whenever there’s even an allegation in the Labour Party, that MP in question loses the labour whip.” By refusing to accept there are bullying allegations being made against her means Rosena doesn’t have to the whip suspended…

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A former Labour councillor and activist has accused the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health of treating people “like dirt”. Hannah Stanislaus, who has since quit the party, said the environment in Rosena Allin-Khan’s office in 2019 left them “suicidal and in the jaws of addiction”. Speaking on Twitter, Hannah said Rosena was guilty of berating and belittling activists, adding she allowed staffers to “bully” and “intimidate”. Labour categorically denies the claims.

Rosena isn’t the only individual highlighted for her behaviour. Hannah also points the finger at staffers Kate Forbes and Sean Lawless. Both are still employed in her office.

More recently, Hannah questioned why Labour are yet to respond. Well, Labour’s press team has a fair answer to this – there have been no formal complaints lodged and they have not launched a proactive investigation, which they say they would if they thought there was a case to answer. Keir Starmer has criticised the Prime Minister for being “too weak to do anything” about bullying allegations against Dominic Raab. At least Rishi held an investigation…

More shocking allegations have emerged against the hard-staring villain that is the Deputy Prime Minister. Now, having already been accused of “microaggressions“, Dominic Raab is fending off claims that he is “unpleasant” from civil servants quoted in the Financial Times. At least one of whom apparently only decided Raab had bullied them with the benefit of “hindsight”… 

According to civil servants speaking to the FT, Raab “gets uncontrollably angry at minor things“, such as not sorting out documents as instructed, or “‘freezing out’ officials who had given the “wrong” advice during meetings”. One official refused to even elaborate on any particular incident, instead assuring readers that Raab’s actions were simply “devastating”. 

One senior civil servant does at least acknowledge that all this has gotten out of hand:

“He was demanding, a stickler for grammar, he could be a bit short. You could certainly tell if he wasn’t happy. But that’s a million miles from bullying… I’m sure some civil servants . . . have found the work too stressful. But it’s meant to be a Rolls-Royce service.”

The FT also reveals Raab has an “unusual” approach to reviewing mandarins’ policy papers: grading them on a scale of one to four. Civil servants having their work properly scrutinised? Send Dom to The Hague…

Another day, another attempt by a cabal of passive-aggressive civil servants to get Dominic Raab sacked. The latest accusation, via Playbook, is that Dominic Raab was “super uptight” about the formatting of Ministerial Submissions during his time at the Foreign Office.

He was said to dismiss submissions that were not formatted how he liked them… Raab even created a grading regime for submissions, and civil service bosses would be held responsible if their team received regular low grades. At one point three directors-general found themselves working on a single submission for the best part of a week to ensure Raab wouldn’t just bin it. Officials said they felt the department had become cowed and overworked in a bid to manage the minister’s ego rather than enact meaningful change.

Even without context, this allegation seems a ludicrous complaint with which to try and ruin a ministerial career…

Guido has managed to track down a Whitehall official familiar with Raab’s preferences for Ministerial Submissions, who paints a more reasonable explanation behind what the Deputy PM wanted and why.

The main demand from Raab’s template was to ensure submissions clearly spelt out what decisions were required and which provided relevant options, information and advice – not, as those with axes to grind are briefing, an unnecessary obsession with spelling and formatting. These so-called demanding requirements included:

• The submission contain all relevant facts allowing Raab to make a decision
  • Key information should not be buried in annexes (which should be used for supporting documents and not for advice)
• Maximum four pages
  • Given the level of demand on the Secretary of State’s time, information should be kept concise (otherwise every desk would send novel-length submissions)
• Have clear recommendations so it’s clear what ministers are being asked to decide
• Give ministers a clear choice, to avoid situations where ministers weren’t actually permitted to decide what foreign policy should be
• Each submission needs to be signed off by a senior civil servant, who would take responsibility for the quality of work

The spelling requirement, therefore, was more a canary in a coal mine than an end in itself. If the spelling was wrong, it was likely not enough attention had been given to the proposals themselves.

Forcing one senior civil service to put their name to the work assigned responsibility to an individual. It also avoided the document  being sent round several desks and resulting in the proposal looking like a “Frankenstein’s monster”. 

A Whitehall official who supports Raab says:

Some civil servants may have resented the standards expected of them, some may have felt Raab was too process-driven and not flexible enough, but it’s hard not to conclude that some civil servants involved simply are trying to remove a minister they didn’t like working for by deliberate and misleading leaks to the media

Let’s see what nonsense allegations tomorrow brings…