Dominic Rennie Raab is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor between 2021 and 2023, with a brief period out of office during the premiership of Liz Truss.
77 Facts About Dominic Raab
2.
Dominic Raab has been Member of Parliament for Esher and Walton since 2010.
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Dominic Raab studied law at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and then went on to study for a master's degree at Jesus College, Cambridge.
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Dominic Raab began his career as a solicitor at Linklaters, before working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as a political aide.
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Dominic Raab was elected for Esher and Walton at the 2010 general election.
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Dominic Raab served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice in the second government of David Cameron from 2015 to 2016.
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In 2018, Dominic Raab was promoted to Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union following the resignation of David Davis.
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In 2020, when the Department for International Development was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Dominic Raab's post was retitled Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.
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Dominic Raab resigned from Sunak's government in April 2023 after an investigation upheld some complaints that he had bullied civil servants.
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Dominic Raab was critical of the investigation's findings and said that the threshold for bullying had been set too low.
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Dominic Rennie Raab was born on 25 February 1974 in Buckinghamshire.
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Dominic Raab's father, who was Jewish, was born in Czechoslovakia and fled the Nazis with his family in 1938 at age six.
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Dominic Raab was brought up in his English mother's faith, in the Church of England.
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Dominic Raab was 12 years old when his father died of cancer.
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Dominic Raab then studied for a Master of Laws degree at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he won the Clive Parry Prize for International Law.
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At Linklaters, Dominic Raab worked on project finance, international litigation and competition law.
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In total Dominic Raab worked for six years professionally as a solicitor after qualifying, in both commercial work and civil service positions for the government in the Foreign Office, before leaving the legal profession to pursue politics in 2006.
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Dominic Raab defended Tony Blair against a subpoena from former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
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When, most of two decades later in 2021 in his ministerial political career Dominic Raab was appointed Justice Secretary, he was described within the legal press as an "ex-rookie" solicitor of a major law firm.
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Dominic Raab was elected to Parliament at the 2010 election to represent Esher and Walton, a then safe Conservative seat in Surrey, with a total of 32,134 votes and a majority of 18,593 over his nearest rival.
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Dominic Raab criticised the government for opting into the EU directive on the European Investigation Order, arguing it would strain operational policing resources, and would dilute safeguards protecting British citizens from misuse of personal data and guaranteeing a fair trial.
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Dominic Raab came to media attention in August 2010, after requesting that the pressure group 38 Degrees remove his parliamentary email address from their website, arguing that lobby groups sending or coordinating 'clone emails' designed to deluge MPs' inboxes detracted from their ability to correspond with constituents and help those in real need.
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Dominic Raab has participated in debates on giving prisoners the vote and extradition.
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Dominic Raab argued that reform was needed to prevent "militant union bosses" holding the "hard working majority" to ransom.
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On 30 January 2014, Dominic Raab proposed an amendment to the Immigration Bill to deport all prisoners given a sentence of a year or more.
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In February 2018, Dominic Raab advertised for an unpaid intern just ahead of a Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy publication responding to the Taylor review on insecure work.
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Dominic Raab refused to release the woman from the confidentiality clause of the compromise agreement, leaving the newspaper hampered in mounting a defence, and the court refused to strike out the libel claim or order the disclosure of a witness statement made by the woman.
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The newspaper settled out of court with Dominic Raab, paying him a five-figure sum and printing a retraction and apology in March 2012.
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Dominic Raab believed the dossier itself was a "form of harassment and intimidation".
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The UK Statistics Authority asked Dominic Raab to publish the evidence for his claim.
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Dominic Raab was an active campaigner in the 2016 EU membership referendum, advocating that Britain should leave the European Union.
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On 9 July 2018, following the resignation of David Davis, Dominic Raab was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.
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On 15 November 2018, Dominic Raab announced his resignation as Brexit Secretary, citing his disapproval over the Cabinet position on the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement.
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In June 2019, unnamed EU sources claimed that Dominic Raab had been nicknamed "The Turnip" in Brussels, a play on raap, the Dutch word for the vegetable, suggesting EU dissatisfaction with his negotiation strategy.
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On 25 May 2019, Dominic Raab announced he was standing in the Conservative Party leadership election after Theresa May announced her resignation.
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Dominic Raab stood in for Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions on 2 October 2019, as First Secretary of State.
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Dominic Raab backed the strike, describing the American action as self-defence.
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Dominic Raab said that his government had "always recognised the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force".
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Dominic Raab supported Johnson's decision to allow China's Huawei to build part of UK's 5G network despite US and Australian opposition.
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On 16 June, it was announced by the Prime Minister that Dominic Raab would absorb the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for International Development in September 2020 upon the formation of a joint department called the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
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Dominic Raab did not rule out boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics over the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese government.
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Dominic Raab welcomed the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, saying he was gladdened by suspension of Israel's plans to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.
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On 10 May 2021, Dominic Raab condemned rocket attacks on Israel and called for "immediate de-escalation on all sides" and an "end to targeting of civilian populations".
44.
Dominic Raab was abroad on holiday when Kabul fell to the Taliban.
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Unnamed sources told The Guardian Dominic Raab refused to talk to some Foreign Office staff and this allegedly caused problems during the Afghanistan evacuation.
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The Guardian reported in December 2022 that Dominic Raab prevented the victims' commissioner for England and Wales being reappointed and is not expected to replace her for months.
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Unnamed sources stated Dominic Raab intervened to stop Vera Baird staying as victims' commissioner.
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Dominic Raab was reappointed by Sunak as Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor on 25 October 2022.
49.
In November 2022, Dominic Raab said that terrorist offenders would face longer sentences if they committed crime, such as vandalising cells, while in prison.
50.
Dominic Raab resigned as both Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary on 21 April 2023, after an independent investigation found that his behaviour towards civil servants at the Ministry of Justice and at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had amounted to bullying in two cases.
51.
Allegations against Dominic Raab included claims that he lost his temper at work and left staff scared to enter his office and that his behaviour was "abrasive and controlling".
52.
Adam Tolley KC was appointed to undertake the investigation, while the responsibility to decide whether Dominic Raab had breached the ministerial code of conduct would remain with Sunak.
53.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Antonia Romeo, had had to ask Dominic Raab to treat staff professionally and with respect on his return.
54.
Dominic Raab denied the allegations with a spokesman saying "He consistently holds himself to the highest standards of professionalism and has never received nor been made aware of any formal complaint against him".
55.
Tolly conducted 66 interviews including four with Dominic Raab, who made written representations to the investigation.
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Dominic Raab's style was, in his own words, "inquisitorial, direct, impatient and fastidious", but the report found that he did not shout or swear at people, and did not refer to them as "snowflakes".
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The report found that Dominic Raab had been aggressive at a meeting at the Foreign Office and his conduct had involved misuse of power to undermine and humiliate.
58.
Dominic Raab complained that there had been "skewed and fabricated claims" leaked to the media during the investigation.
59.
On 10 February 2011, Dominic Raab gave the winding-up speech in the debate on whether to give prisoners the vote, arguing that freedom entails responsibility and that elected lawmakers in the House of Commons rather than "unaccountable" judges in Strasbourg should decide the matter.
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On 24 November 2011, Dominic Raab led a debate in the House of Commons calling for extradition reform.
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Dominic Raab's motion had cross-party support, and was backed by Gary McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharpe.
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In January 2011, Dominic Raab wrote an article on the use of control orders in counter-terrorism cases in which he contended that they are ineffective and should be scrapped with a greater focus on prosecutions.
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Dominic Raab argued that judges had overstepped the mark in relation to the case because they were not elected.
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Dominic Raab contended that many of the judges were lacking experience and as a result "are undermining the credibility and value of the Court".
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Dominic Raab made a range of proposals to strengthen the authority of Britain's Supreme Court, give elected lawmakers the last word on the creation of new rights, and reform the Strasbourg Court.
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In July 2011, Dominic Raab called for reform of the UK Borders Act 2007, which allows foreign criminals to avoid deportation by claiming a "right to family life" under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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Dominic Raab proposed that the reference to the Human Rights Act be removed.
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Dominic Raab argued this could be done in a way that ensures foreign criminals could avoid deportation only if there is a "serious risk" they will be tortured on their return.
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Dominic Raab argued for a meritocratic approach against positive discrimination and highlighted the lower standard of human rights protections in extradition cases compared with deportation cases.
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Dominic Raab was interviewed on the piece by the London Evening Standard, as well as BBC Radio 4.
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Dominic Raab's remarks took place during a debate on employment law in the House of Commons.
72.
Dominic Raab stated he had received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction to his comments "from both men and women".
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In July 2012, Dominic Raab published a pamphlet with the Centre for Policy Studies entitled Unleashing the British Underdog: 10 Bets on the Little Guy.
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Dominic Raab wrote his piece for the paper on British foreign policy, arguing it should reflect the national interest: Britain should not overextend itself in foreign conflicts, aid should be focused on the poorest countries and Britain should champion free trade abroad.
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Dominic Raab is married to Erika Rey, a Brazilian marketing executive who until 2020 worked for Google.
76.
In October 2021, following the murder of Sir David Amess, Dominic Raab told ITV News that he had received three death threats in the previous two years.
77.
Dominic Raab won Newcomer of the Year for 2011 at The Spectator magazine's Parliamentary Awards.