Labour rains blows on Raab over bullying claims 

Once again, the Tories went into Prime Minister’s Questions in a defensive crouch over the behaviour of one of their ministers. Shortly before the session, Rishi Sunak tried to soften the blows that were due to rain down on Dominic Raab over allegations about his behaviour towards civil servants. The Prime Minister, still overseas, announced there would be an independent probe into the claims that had been made. This at least meant Raab, who was standing in for him in the Commons, could say the government takes bullying seriously. But it didn’t stop the session from being dominated by Labour attacks on the matter. 

The first question came from Labour backbencher Clive Betts, who asked the deputy prime minister if he agreed that no minister who had a complaint of bullying upheld could remain in post. Raab insisted he was confident that he had behaved professionally and would comply fully with the investigation. Angela Rayner was on the frontbench for Labour and opened by asking about the barrage of Russian missile strikes on Ukraine, and whether Raab felt Vladimir Putin was treating the international order with contempt. She also complained about the government’s record on tax evasion and the UK’s standing in international growth league tables, teeing the Commons up for tomorrow’s Autumn Statement. Then she moved on to Raab himself. 

Raab’s problem is that when his own integrity is being questioned, he tends to answer very fully but not hugely helpfully. That’s where his infamous ‘the sea was actually closed’ line came from when he was accused of enjoying a beach holiday during the fall of Kabul. Today, he engaged with Rayner’s attacks to the extent that he encouraged more of them, asking her to give specific details of complaints against him which he could answer. Labour’s deputy leader had previously made jibes about Raab reportedly throwing tomatoes across a table in frustration. But after his invitation she came back with renewed accusations, including about claims that he wasn’t allowed to meet junior staff on their own without supervision. 

What will have comforted Raab was that the questions from behind him were supportive: Tory MPs either pointed out that a person was innocent until proven guilty or accused Labour of being ‘bully boys’ themselves. But these helpful interventions – and indeed Rayner’s attacks – weren’t the main takeaway from this session. The most important question came right at the end from former Conservative minister Esther McVey. Complaining that the government was taxing and spending too much, she declared that she would not support the Autumn Statement unless it made moves to scrap ‘vanity projects’ such as HS2. Refusing to vote through fiscal measures is normally treated as a confidence issue. McVey won’t have made this threat without consulting colleagues who might be minded to do the same. It shows that even if Tory MPs want to stick together against attacks from Labour, they’re still very much disunited on the central questions.