British Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak
has replaced
Dominc Raab
, who resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and Justice incumbent following allegations of bullying of ministerial officials, unpacking his roles and sparking a mini-reshuffle of the Tory government.
Oliver Dowden
becomes Deputy Premier
, who also retains his post as Minister in the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
While Alex Chalk
is promoted to Justice .
Gradually, Chalk, until now deputy defense minister, is replaced by James Cartlidge;
who in turn gives the position of number 2 of the Treasury to Gareth Davies.
All promoted are under 50, like Sunak himself (42);
and the youngest of the lot, Davies, is 39 years old.
Their designations - reads a note released by Downing Street - were signed, as usual, by King Charles III in his capacity as head of state.
"Her Majesty - reads the statement - also approved" on the proposal of the premier the appointment of Chloe Smith as interim minister of Science, Technology and Innovation and of Julia Lopez and the veteran John Whittingdale as deputy minister of Culture, Media and Sport, in replacing MIchelle Donelan and Julia Lopez respectively, both of whom are on maternity leave at their request.
Dominic Raab resigned on the basis of an independent report that assessed some of the behaviors that have been the subject of internal complaints in recent months as "intimidating and humiliating" for subordinates.
Complaints with respect to which the now former number 2 of Sunak has kept the commitment set to take a step back if he was found responsible but which overall he insisted on denying in the letter of resignation from office: signed this morning apparently without the Prime Minister had officially asked him to step aside, not deeming at least a serious violation of the ministerial code of conduct proven.
In the text, Raab limited himself to apologizing in a general way for any stress he might have caused someone, but not without noting that the report only gave credence to "
