Dominic Raab acquired a near-£17,000 ministerial payout on resigning as justice secretary in 2023 after an official report discovered he had acted in an “intimidating” method in direction of civil servants, newly revealed accounts have proven.
Raab, who opted to not contest his Esher and Walton seat in Surrey within the normal election, was paid £16,876 as “compensation for lack of workplace”, the 2023-24 annual report for the Ministry of Justice confirmed.
The Liberal Democrats, who received Esher and Walton in July, have known as on Raab to pay the cash again, given the circumstances underneath which he acquired it.
Below guidelines on payouts, which Labour has pledged to alter, ministers who lose their jobs for no matter motive are entitled to 1 / 4 of their annual wage, nevertheless lengthy they had been within the put up. That is repaid provided that they get one other ministerial position inside three weeks.
Raab stepped down as justice secretary and Rishi Sunak’s deputy prime minister in April 2023 after an investigation by a number one employment barrister stated he had on a variety of events “gone additional” than applicable in delivering essential suggestions and been insulting about work accomplished by officers.
The report stated whereas Raab didn’t intend to upset or humiliate officers, they discovered him “unreasonably tough to take care of”, as he was typically “abrasive”.
Raab had confronted a number of formal complaints over his dealings with civil servants, together with claims, first revealed by the Guardian, that he bullied and belittled employees.
In his resignation letter, Raab stated whereas he was preserving his phrase to give up if the report discovered in opposition to him, he believed the findings set a harmful precedent by inserting the brink for bullying too low.
The Ministry of Justice accounts present that Raab additionally acquired £9,043 as a severance fee in 2022 after his first stint as justice secretary ended when Liz Truss, then prime minister, changed him with Brandon Lewis.
After Truss was compelled out, Raab returned to the position, however this was longer than three weeks so he was entitled to maintain the cash.
Labour has promised to cut back payouts to shorter-serving ministers – they’ll obtain 1 / 4 of what they had been really paid over the previous yr, not potential earnings – and to droop funds to ministers underneath investigation for misconduct, with the cash blocked if a grievance was upheld.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson stated: “Voters in Esher and Walton and proper throughout the nation voted for change. Individuals had been fed up with the Conservative get together who had been mired in sleaze. Dominic Raab ought to pay again his payout, given his behaviour in workplace.”
Raab was contacted for remark.