Rishi Sunak has appointed his long-term ally Oliver Dowden as his deputy after the resignation of Dominic Raab, while making Alex Chalk the new justice secretary. Downing Street announced on Friday that the prime minister had promoted Dowden, a minister in the Cabinet Office, after Raab’s decision to stand down over a report on allegations of bullying behaviour. Sunak also decided to promote Chalk, a trained lawyer, from his role at the Ministry of Defence, defying speculation that Raab’s successor would be a woman.
The appointments came hours after Raab’s resignation, which was triggered by the lengthy report by Adam Tolley KC into multiple bullying accusations made against him by senior civil servants. Sunak’s appointment of Dowden as deputy prime minister cements his reputation in government as the prime minister’s right-hand man, after a stint in the Cabinet Office where he was responsible for co-ordinating the government’s response to winter strikes. Dowden was culture, media and sport secretary for 18 months in Boris Johnson’s government, during which time he provided emergency funding for the arts during the pandemic and also banned Huawei from UK 5G networks. His promotion came only an hour after sources had briefed that Sunak would not formally appoint a new deputy to replace Raab, suggesting the prime minister had made a last-minute change of plan. His new role will enable him to continue working across government, and will also see him deputise should the prime minister be unable to attend prime minister’s questions. Dowden and Sunak have been close for years. Together with Robert Jenrick, who is now the immigration minister, they wrote a piece in the Times in 2019 backing Boris Johnson as the next Tory leader and prime minister – a piece that was seen at the time as crucial in bolstering Johnson’s campaign. Last summer, Dowden resigned as the chair of the Conservative party after a pair of disastrous byelection defeats, saying he was taking responsibility for the results. In his resignation letter, he said: “We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility.” His comments were taken at the time to be a veiled criticism of the prime minister, and Dowden was accused of being part of a plan to make Sunak prime minister. When Sunak did run in the eventual leadership campaign, Dowden was an early backer. And when Sunak became prime minister following Liz Truss’s resignation last autumn, he appointed Dowden to the Cabinet Office in a roving role that allowed him to tackle problems across different departments, such as the winter’s industrial action. Chalk, meanwhile, is a former lawyer who has prosecuted and defended clients in a range of cases, from terrorism charges to fraud. His appointment satisfies the demand of some Conservative backbenchers that the justice secretary should be a lawyer, but disappoints others who had hoped it would be a woman. Downing Street also announced on Friday returns to government for Chloe Smith and John Whittingdale. Smith, who was work and pensions secretary under Truss, will take over as secretary of state for science, innovation and technology to cover the maternity leave of Michelle Donelan. Whittingdale, a former culture, media and sport secretary, will return to the department in a junior ministerial role to cover the maternity leave of Julia Lopez. Whittingdale came to public prominence in 2011 when he was chair of the culture, media and sport select committee during the phone-hacking scandal. He successfully pushed Rupert Murdoch to testify in front of his committee, but was seen by some campaigners as too close to News International.