Angela Rayner Asks Dominic Raab If 'More Bullies Will Be Brought To Justice'

Labour's deputy leader asks Raab if he "will he walk before he’s pushed" during bad-tempered PMQs.
BBC

Angela Rayner demanded to know whether “more bullies will be brought to justice” as she clashed with Dominic Raab during a bad-temerped PMQs.

The deputy prime minister is under formal investigation over eight formal complaints about his behaviour towards officials over a number of years.

Speculating it was likely his last time standing in for Rishi Sunak in the Commons, Rayner suggested he was a thug and asked “will he walk before he’s pushed?”

Rayner said: “This week the government announced they so called anti-social behaviour policy.

“I’ll give him some credit. The deputy prime minister knows first hand the misery caused by thugs and their intimidating behaviour, working with menace, exploding in fits of rage, creating a culture of fear, and maybe even throwing things.”

Among the allegations - which Raab has denied - is that he threw tomatoes at staff.

Rayner asked to cheers from the Labour benches: “Under his new anti-social behaviour [policy] does he think more bullies will be brought to justice?”

Raab, who sat stony face during Rayner’s questions, hit back: “I can assure the House I have never called anyone scum.”

In 2021, Rayner told Labour activists at the party’s annual conference that Conservatives were “scum”, “homophobic”, “racist” and “misogynistic”.

She later apologised “unreservedly” for her comments and said she would not repeat them.

Rayner added: “The way things are going, and if reports are to be believed, this might be your last PMQs.

“Can he say will he walk before he’s pushed?”

Rayner faced Raab on Wednesday as Sunak and Keir Starmer were attending the funeral of former Speaker Baroness Boothroyd.

Adam Tolley KC, a senior lawyer, was appointed in November to lead the investigation into Raab’s conduct but the process is yet to conclude.

Sunak has said he will wait to hear the conclusion of Tolley’s inquiry before deciding Raab’s future in government.

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