UK Justice Secretary resigns over accusation of harassment

Havana, April 21 (RHC) - United Kingdom politician Dominic Raab resigned on Friday from the posts of Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, accused of workplace harassment after an independent investigation that began in November 2022 and found that he harassed members of the staff from the departments he led.

The report by the inquisitive lawyer, Adam Tolley KC, looked at eight formal complaints about inappropriate behavior by Raab while serving as Foreign Secretary, Brexit Secretary and during his first term as Justice Secretary.

Employees testified to intimidation and rudeness by the defendant, which increased the pressure on Raab and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who accepted the resignation.

Precisely, the British prime minister has responded to the resignation in a letter in which he specifies "But it is clear that there have been deficiencies in the historical process that have negatively affected all those involved. We should learn from this how to better handle these matters in the future ".

Through a letter sent to Sunak and published on Twitter, Raab had also defended his way of acting, alleging that a minister must exercise "direct supervision" when there are relevant situations such as "the Brexit negotiations on Gibraltar".

The outgoing deputy prime minister asserted "While I feel compelled to accept the result, it dismissed all but two of the allegations made against me. I also believe that its two adverse findings are flawed and set a dangerous precedent for good governance conduct."

Likewise, he explained that an official can be critical of his subordinates "within reasonable limits" and regretted the "stress or unintentional offenses" that could have caused.

The outgoing Justice Secretary also argued that the investigation has set a "very low threshold for harassment" and that this "will encourage spurious complaints against ministers and will have a chilling effect on those who are driving change on behalf of their government and, ultimately on the British people".