I witnessed the Afghan evacuation scandal – Raab should have been sacked there and then
When in a disagreement with officials in the Foreign Office, Dominic Raab would sometimes roll his shoulders like a boxer about to start a bout in the ring, recounted one of them who had been in that situation.
Asked how he responded, the official said: “I rolled my shoulders back. Raab looked a bit confused, but quietened down. That gave me a chance to explain what the team was putting forward. It was a policy matter, actually something not that controversial, and it was sorted put, but one needed to tackle this combative attitude.”
The official, engaged in the security side of the Foreign Office, was not a karate black belt, or an Oxford boxing blue like Raab. But he had been in difficult circumstances in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and was not fazed by displays of petulant belligerence while accepting that some colleagues may have become upset by some of the Foreign Secretary’s behaviour.
