Dominic Raab should not have resigned, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said, suggesting the former deputy PM “had not done anything improper.”
Mr Raab quit this morning after a report upheld two claims of bullying against him and found he was “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” in a meeting while foreign secretary.
Speaking to GB News this evening, former Cabinet minister Mr Rees-Mogg declared Mr Raab had been wrong to take such action, which he claimed set a “damaging” precedent for the role of the civil service.
“I don’t think Dominic Raab needed to resign, I don’t think the report found he had done anything improper,” Mr Rees-Mogg told the broadcaster.
“I’m afraid this is a terrible shift in power away from those who are democratically elected, democratically appointed, and those who aren’t,” he added, in reference to civil service. “It’s a great mistake that Dominic Raab has been forced out.”
Mr Rees-Mogg, who hosts his own show for GB News, gave the interview amid reports that Mr Raab was squaring up for his own spot on the channel.
Sources from GB News reportedly told The Express that Mr Raab would be a “good fit” for the broadcaster, following the debuts of his fellow Tory MPs Esther McVey, Philip Davies and Lee Anderson.
Mr Rees-Mogg went on to reiterate comments made earlier by Mr Rabb, who suggested “activist” and “passive aggressive” civil servants had been trying to block reforms like Brexit.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Raab charged a small group of “very activist” senior civil servants with pushing back against proposed government reforms because they don’t support them.
Mr Rees Mogg suggested these claims spoke to “disreputable” behaviour within the civil service which “should have been dismissed much more harshly by the investigator.”
He went on: “These are high pressure roles and people working for the deputy prime minister must realise they’re not in the teddy bear’s picnic.
“This is a tough and robust working environment, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to think that it is going to be anything other than that when you’re running the country and decisions have to be made very rapidly and high standards are expected.
“Dominic Raab sometimes said that the work ‘wasn’t good enough’, you must be entitled to say that as a minister.”
The MP for North East Somerset added: “I think you need to have people with a bit of backbone working in government and this snowflakery is damaging for democracy.”
