Dominic Raab bullying report has led to ‘complete breakdown in trust between ministers and civil servants’, thinktank says | Politics News

32 comments

  1. Schoolboy Sunak was too scared to fire the bully.

    How many government ministers is that he’s lost now? What happened to governing with integrity?

  2. So is it the entire civil service at fault or the people we’ve been watching treat us all like shit for a decade ?

    Gee I wonder why trust has broken down.

  3. Having read what was in the report, this is the type of boss who would cause people to quit their jobs. The employment lawyer who conducted the inquiry may have cleared some of his behaviour as “style” but as an ordinary employee dealing with it on a daily basis it’s terrible to put up with. It was actually a high bar which he was judged on. Then, there was conduct which the lawyer thought did amount to bullying. It’s a power trip. Type of thing you see in films actually happening in real life.

  4. To quote from page 45 of the report

    *”In reaching and implementing this management choice he acted in a way which was intimidating, in the sense of unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct in the context of a work meeting. It also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates. He introduced an unwarranted punitive element. His conduct was experienced as undermining or humiliating by the affected individual, which was inevitable. It is to be inferred that the DPM was aware that this would be the effect of his conduct; at the very least, he should have been aware”*

    Overall the report was incredibly kids gloves on and many of the elements allowed as “just abrasive” would have resulted in at the minimum disciplinary action of any regular manager in most organisation’s not just the Civil Service.

    Its solely due to their positon(hey like most organisations) that it was allowed and then treated with child gloves.

    Edit: At multiple points the report alludes to Raab trying to lie during the investigation(see 154 as an example) and actively changed his behaviour once the investigation started. Showing he knew exactly what was done and how he should have behaved. Its only that he faced consequences that he considered not being a complete twat of a manager.

  5. I’m pretty sure the victims of the bullying had already had their trust broken down by the actual bullying, before any reports came out.

  7. It is a cult.

    “I embody the will of the people, I am the saviour, therefore I can do no wrong.”

    And the worst part is that they are all like this, at least in the government.

  9. Of course its led to a breakdown of trust, but this is just one of many examples where the government have abused the fact that we as civil servants lack a voice to defend itself from government attacks.

    If you read the report, Raab is dealt with in the most kind and kid glove terms, which demonstrates the battle civil servants face when faced fighting for accountability

  12. As someone who has worked in the civil service for a long time in London, I have never once seen political bias from any civil servant that was undermining what the government wanted to do. You know what people’s political views are in many cases, but I have never once thought, “he/she is undermining that policy for their own political reasons.” Not once. Not ever. In decades.

    Its just another feature of the Brexit ideology that when things don’t work, the golden cow of Brexit cannot be to blame. It must be remainers, or saboteurs, or malfeasance. This thinking pervades everything on the right now, because the alternative is admitting catastrophic failure of governance and of the core project behind this government: Brexit. It’s all about saving the face of the project and it’s supporters. But the evidence is now becoming irresistible as the people tumble and the promises are revealed to be empty. Vacant.

  13. Honestly, the weirdest thing from this is that he would regularly extend his palm into people’s faces to make them stop talking, and no one in his career has ever punched him in the mouth. Speaks to the professionalism in the Service.

  15. Its a thinktank so >_> <_<

    but given the near public gaslighting from the government that the Civil Service are full of “woke lefties” who stymie their agenda and we would do better without when the government would cease to operate like…is it any wonder constant belittling and bullying will make one side feel fed up?

  16. Dear whoever wrote that headline, no mate, the breakdown in trust came from Raab and others like him past and present spending literal *years* bullying and harassing staff, forcing some to change careers, to the point where managers had to have strategies in place to protect staff who were being targeted and minimise the risk Raab presented. He’s not the only one, to be clear. Workplace conduct that would get any of us fired gets the nod because these people have power and their cronies don’t want to risk losing their own power by having the fight.

  17. I mean, yeh. He’s been claiming he wasn’t bullying anyone for years and now the report has conclusively said the opposite. If I was a civil servant I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them at this point.

  18. wait, continually voting in the most toxic and amoral people possible for almost 15 years was a bad thing ???

  19. I think it’s been a running meme in right wing circles since Yes Minister that the civil service is always hampering and sabotaging government. Raab’s disgusting use of it to justify his behaviour is just one more thing to reinforce the idea that the Conservatives and the right wing more generally are somehow victims, discriminated against, or whatever despite the deep-seated right wing roots in this country’s culture and public institutions, and despite their utter political and cultural dominance over the last 13 years.

    Regardless, given the last few PMs’ willingness to make large-scale upheavals to our constitution and our political traditions — this one included — I wouldn’t be surprised if this ushers in some reactionary reforms to Whitehall. While others might think it prudent for a government with no democratic backing to who the electorate is openly hostile to refrain from imposing large, constitutionally important change, I’m certain the current iteration of the Tory party won’t. This may give Sunak some desperate hope of claiming a legacy.

  20. Ministers have been explicitly trying to undermine or bypass civil servants since Johnson’s tenure (downsizing or eliminating the civil service was one of Dominic Cummings’ pet projects). Its completely irresponsible, as civil servants often act as the “adult in the room” with new and inexperienced ministers. Two notable examples of this are when Truss + Kwarteng bypassed or sacked civil servants before wheeling out their disastrous mini-budget, and when Raab wasn’t talking to half of his staff when he ballsed up the Afghan evacuation.

    Its complete hubris.

  21. Another day of Tory scum acting like Tory scum. Imagine looking into your bairn’s eyes and telling them this is who you have voted for; bullying scum.

  23. Can you imagine, you put a complaint in about your boss, they aren’t suspended immediately so you have to keep on dealing with the bullying. Then when they’re found guilty via investigation they aren’t disciplined but decide to move on from their role. Then the next day, when you think its all behind you and you can move on, you see that a major newspaper has an article written by your ex-boss basically saying you were soft, useless and undermined him? Fucking state of how this has all been managed is a disgrace.

  26. He is a supporter of right ideology . He know how to bully .

    But I bet people who are calling him bully sometimes acts as a bully . They don’t realise it yet .

  30. He is really an antique piece found at the bottom of the sea.

    He always prefer victim blaming instead of taking blame on himself if he did this .

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