UK: Accused of harassment, Deputy Prime Minister resigns

British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab announced his resignation on Friday after an independent report found he had morally harassed public officials, a setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, of whom he was a close ally.

“I write to you to resign from your government,” writes Mr. Raab, also Minister of Justice, in this letter addressed to Rishi Sunak. “I had asked for this investigation and had undertaken to resign if it established facts of harassment, whatever they were. I believe it is important to keep my word,” he wrote.

This investigation had been launched following eight complaints concerning his behavior when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Brexit or during a previous visit to the Ministry of Justice.

Dominic Raab has always denied these accusations which have poisoned the government for months and have raised numerous criticisms from the opposition.

This report submitted Thursday to the Prime Minister and not yet made public, “rejected all complaints, except two”, specifies the minister in his letter, continuing to judge them “false”.

The findings of the investigation “set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of the government,” he further defends.

Again on Thursday, Downing Street displayed its “total confidence” in its Deputy Prime Minister, while claiming to “study carefully the conclusions of the report”.

He is the third minister to quit Rishi Sunak’s government after various accusations, adding a further stain on the prime minister’s promise to show ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ in office after the succession of scandals under Boris Johnson.

In November, Gavin Williamson, a minister without portfolio in Rishi Sunak’s government, resigned after accusations of harassment.

And in January, Rishi Sunak had to dismiss the president of the conservative party Nadhim Zahawi, who sat as such in the council of ministers, for tax disputes.

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