Dominic Raab

Dear Prime Minister, I am writing to resign from your government, following receipt of the report arising from the inquiry conducted by Adam Tolley KC. I called for the inquiry and undertook to resign, if it made any finding of bullying whatsoever. I believe it is important to keep my word. It has been a privilege to serve you as Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work as a minister in a range of roles and departments since 2015, and pay tribute to the many outstanding civil servants with whom I have worked. Whilst I feel duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry, it dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me.

I resigned from the Cabinet because I could not support the government’s Brexit deal. And I still judge it to be a poor deal. But I also recognise that with the government purporting to take no deal off the table, and its acquiescence in the extension of Article 50, that we potentially face an even worse alternative that could reverse Brexit and betray our democracy. In extending Article 50 and signalling it was taking a WTO exit off the table, the Government weakened its own negotiating position in Brussels, and I’m afraid it heartened those in Parliament trying to frustrate Brexit. This was a serious mistake,  one which breached the clear commitments made in Parliament and in the 2017 Conservative manifesto.

Dear Prime Minister, It's been an honour to serve in your government as Justice Minister, Housing Minister and Brexit Secretary. I regret to say that following the Cabinet meeting yesterday on the Brexit deal, I must resign. I understand why you have chosen to pursue the deal with the EU on the terms proposed, and I respect the different views held in good faith by all of our colleagues. For my part, I cannot support the proposed deal for two reasons. First, I believe that the regulatory regime proposed for Northern Ireland presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom. Second, I cannot support an indefinite backstop arrangement, where the EU holds a veto over our ability to exit.

I want to start with an appeal for tolerance. We all know that Brexit is a controversial subject. It excites strong passions. But as a Party and as a country, we also need to keep a sense of proportion. Everybody had a vote. And most people have an opinion. But only a small minority think it's worth fighting over. Except when they're on Twitter. It's important to remember that the person sitting next to you...On the bus into town...At your desk at work...Round the breakfast table...And, yes, here in this hall today... Many have voted the other way to you in the referendum. That’s the genius of our democracy. We express our differences at the ballot box, but afterwards we come together, and respect the result.

Today, dozens of campaign groups rushed to defend Oxfam’s advert attacking government austerity for ‘forcing more and more people into poverty’, claiming complaints about politicisation were an attempt to ‘silence legitimate debate’. In a free country, pressure groups are part of the fabric of our democracy. But, if they choose to be charities for ‘public benefit’, they must remain independent to justify extensive tax breaks.  Oxfam sounds like an echo chamber for the Labour Party – and taxpayers aren’t there to subsidise that. Like the Hollywood blockbuster it was mimicking, Oxfam’s ad mixes fact and fiction.

As Britain gets fit for what David Cameron calls the ‘global economic race’, figures out this morning confirm Britain remains hamstrung by poor productivity. UK productivity per hour has remained stagnant over the last year (having fallen by 1.76 per cent since 2008). When he eyed the competition at last week’s G8 summit, the Prime Minister will have clocked that only sclerotic Russia and stagnant Japan have worse productivity than the UK. According to a recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) review, Britain lags 16 percentage points behind the G7 average, 27 behind the US. Ageing infrastructure and under-investment has blighted the oil and gas sector.  Manufacturing productivity last year fell by 5.