Dominic Raab faces ‘uphill fight’ to keep seat at next General Election

Dominic Raab faces an “uphill fight” to hold his seat at the next General Election with the bullying claims swirling over him, say political experts.

The Deputy Prime Minister held the affluent constituency of Esher and Walton in 2019 with a majority of just 2,743, down from 23,298 just two years earlier.

Support for him evaporated amid a fierce backlash against Brexit, a cause he championed.

The Liberal Democrats have set up an office in the constituency which they are heavily targeting.

Lord Hayward, a leading Tory pollster, said: “He is in an uphill fight having faced a very substantial Liberal Democrat challenge last time around.”

Another political expert said that while anger against Mr Raab over Brexit may have eased, he is seen as “vulnerable” as some voters in 2019 may have been worried that if they voted Lib-Dem and ousted him it could have given the keys to No10 to Jeremy Corbyn.

These voters, he argued, are thought to be less concerned at the prospect of Sir Keir Starmer becoming Prime Minister than Mr Corbyn.

Labour on Friday sought to drag Rishi Sunak into the fall-out of the bullying inquiry into Justice Secretary Mr Raab who resigned on Friday morning.

The Lib-Dems immediately called for a by-election.

Earlier, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said before the announcement: “Rishi Sunak has been holed up in Downing Street, reading the report, and he has got no-one to blame but himself because he knew these allegations were in the air when he appointed Dominic Raab as Deputy Prime Minister and he has got form for weakness in appointing people to the highest offices who are not fit to hold them.”

Mr Raab had rejected the bullying claims against him from a number of civil servants during his time at the Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice and former Brexit Department but accepted the inquiry’s findings.

Mr Sunak’s Government has also faced a series of other controversies over senior figures including Home Secretrary Suella Braverman, who quit the post under Liz Truss’ administration over a breach of the ministerial code relating to use of private emails only to be reappointed to it by her successor, Nadhim Zahawi who was sacked as Chancellor over a tax row, and Sir Gavin Williamson who resigned as a Government minister after bullying claims, which he strongly denied.

But Transport Secretary Mark Harper hit back at the Labour attack, defending the Prime Minister who he stressed wanted to reach a “swift conclusion” on the Raab inquiry after taking a “little bit of time” to consider the report.

He emphasised that Mr Sunak’s pledge to lead a Government of “integrity, accountability and professionalism” still stood.

He added: “He only received the report yesterday, at the conclusion of a five-month inquiry.

“It’s right that the Prime Minister takes the time to read the report in full, go through all of the details, and that is fair to the complainants who made serious complaints and also fair to Dominic Raab.”