One of the two complaints against Dominic Raab upheld by the investigation into the ex-Deputy Prime Minister’s behaviour centred on discussions by a British ambassador to allow Spanish officials to operate in Gibraltar.
Adam Tolley QC found that Mr Raab, who resigned in a hard-hitting letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on a dramatic day in Westminister, acted in an “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” way towards Hugh Elliott, the British Ambassador to Spain.
The Telegraph reports that the bullying is said to have followed secret proposals to put Spanish boots on the ground in Gibraltar during Brexit talks in 2020.
It says that allies of Mr Raab have claimed Mr Elliott went beyond the Cabinet-agreed position to never have Spanish officers permanently stationed in the British overseas territory.
The incident came near the end of 2020 when Raab was foreign secretary and Britain’s relationship with the EU was hanging in the balance.
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With Britain and Spain negotiating steps to keep the busy border between Spain and Gibraltar as open as possible, Mr Raab’s followers claim that word reached him that Spain was complaining about “moving goalposts” even as the UK doubled down on its position.
The Telegraph says that Mr Elliott had been sounding out a “fudged” solution with Spanish counterparts that would have seen some Spanish officers stationed in Gibraltar.
He was told to return to London by Mr Raab in November 2020 for a meeting. The specifics of what was said there remain unclear.
Mr Raab’s allies claim that the official went beyond the official approach dictated by government ministers, and in Mr Raab’s eyes a red line had been crossed.
Mr Elliott was effectively removed from the front line of talks, but remained ambassador. Instead, Simon Manley, the ambassador to Spain before Mr Elliott, was sent out to conduct negotiations.
Mr Tolley addressed a complaint about the incident in his report.
His conclusions read: “As part of the process towards and implementation of this management choice, he [Mr Raab] acted in a way which was intimidating, in the sense of unreasonably and persistently aggressive in the context of a workplace meeting.
“His conduct also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates. In particular, he went beyond what was reasonably necessary in order to give effect to his decision and introduced a punitive element.
“His conduct was bound to be experienced as undermining or humiliating by the affected individual, and it was so experienced. I infer that the Deputy Prime Minister must have been aware of this effect; at the very least, he ought reasonably to have been so aware.”
Mr Tolley also found that, in a separate but linked incident, Mr Raab suggested the behaviour of those involved was “in breach of the Civil Service Code (and so would have been in breach of their contracts of employment)”.
He said Mr Raab “did not target any individual, nor intend to threaten anyone with disciplinary action. However, he ought to have realised that referring in this way to the Civil Service Code ‘could have been understood as such a threat’.”
Mr Elliott’s first-hand account is not in the public domain. He was approached for comment via the Foreign Office, but none was issued and the Foreign Office declined to comment.
Negotiations ended with agreement that no Spanish police should be stationed permanently on the ground in Gibraltar.
The agreement was reached on New Year’s Eve 2020.
In his article for The Telegraph, Mr Raab did not name any individuals involved but made reference to the incident.
He wrote: “No-one at the time raised my conduct from the meeting, and no complaint was made until two and a half years later.”
The Foreign Office complaint was one of two that Mr Tolley upheld in his 48-page report, published after Mr Raab had announced his resignation.
