Dominic Raab will stand down as an MP at the next general election, weeks after he quit Rishi Sunak’s cabinet over bullying claims. The former deputy prime minister, who had once been regarded as a potential leader of the Conservative party, resigned last month after a report on allegations of bullying found he had been “unreasonably aggressive”. After being elected in 2010, he had risen to serve twice as deputy prime minister and was foreign secretary during the botched evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. He was heavily criticised for being on holiday as the extraction got under way. In a letter seen by the Daily Telegraph between Raab and the chair of his local Conservative Association he said he was concerned about the effect his being a frontline politician was having on his family. His Esher and Walton constituency is thought to be vulnerable to a resurgent Liberal Democrat party at the next general election. He has a slender 2,743 majority, and the area in Surrey is among Ed Davey’s top targets. The letter said: “I have become increasingly concerned over the last few years about the pressure the job has placed on my young family.” The newspaper reports that his sons Joshua and Peter are eight and 10 respectively. The 49-year-old had entered the cabinet as the Brexit secretary under Theresa May, succeeding his former boss David Davis. He, like Davis, later resigned over differences about the withdrawal agreement. Raab himself had been tipped to one day lead the Tories, most notably by diarist, Sasha Swire, who nicknamed him “Raab C Brexit” after fictional Glaswegian Rab C Nesbitt. He got his chance when May resigned, and he unsuccessfully stood in the ensuing election. Sasha Swire’s husband, Hugo Swire, then an MP and now a peer, coordinated his campaign, and he received the high-profile endorsement of Davis but was eliminated in the second ballot of Tory MPs. The victor in that summer’s race, Boris Johnson, made him his foreign secretary and first secretary of state – de facto Johnson’s deputy. The advent of the Covid pandemic less than a year later and Johnson’s hospital admission meant Raab was in charge while his boss was in intensive care. After Johnson returned to work, Raab continued as foreign secretary. He was at the helm when the British and US withdrawal from Afghanistan began in earnest, and the Taliban swept through the country, capturing the capital. Raab was on holiday in Crete at the time of the crisis and was criticised for not doing enough to assist the evacuation efforts, delaying decision-making. He had said he was working rather than holidaying in Crete. He was reshuffled to become deputy prime minister and justice secretary, being one of the few cabinet members who stayed loyal to Johnson in his final days in office, while others resigned and urged him to go. He declined to stand for leadership again in both contests in 2022, having a brief spell on the backbenches during Liz Truss’ premiership before returning to both roles under Rishi Sunak. However rumours had persisted in Westminster about Raab’s conduct and behaviour towards his staff. In 2022 Ministry of Justice sources told the Guardian that he had been “demeaning rather than demanding” towards staff and had been “very rude and aggressive”. “[He] wasn’t just unprofessional, he was a bully,” one said. Further stories followed until Sunak appointed an independent investigator to examine bullying claims. At the time he said he would “respect whatever outcome”, but when the report by Adam Tolley KC was published, Raab told the Telegraph it was “Kafkaesque” and said it had set a “dangerous precedent”.
He now becomes the latest high-profile Tory to announce he will not contest the next election. The former chancellor Sajid Javid, the former health secretary Matt Hancock and the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries have all said they will be leaving the Commons. • This article was amended on 23 May 2023. Dominic Raab was on holiday in Crete, not Cyprus as an earlier version said, at the time of the Afghanistan crisis.