LONDON — Oliver Dowden, a key ally of Rishi Sunak, is the new deputy prime minister after Dominic Raab quit over a damning report into his conduct.
In a mini-reshuffle of his top team, Sunak announced Alex Chalk will fill Raab’s other job — as the U.K.’s justice secretary. A raft of other changes are being planned for a maternity leave stint by Innovation Secretary Michelle Donelan.
Dowden adds the role on top of his gig running the U.K. Cabinet Office, and previously served as Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party chairman before quitting over disappointing local election results.
Sunak meanwhile elevated Chalk after a spell as minister for defense procurement. He has served under Boris Johnson as solicitor general, the deputy to the top law officer role of attorney general. Justice secretary marks the first cabinet role for Chalk, a qualified barrister who was elected MP for Cheltenham in 2019.
Chalk has a slim majority in his Commons seat, making him potentially vulnerable at the next general election.
Raab resigned Friday after the conclusion of a bullying probe. The investigation into eight formal complaints of bullying found that he had been “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” towards officials.
In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday, Raab — who had pledged to resign if found to have bullied officials — said it was “important to keep my word,” but argued that the inquiry had “set a dangerous precedent” by “setting the threshold for bullying so low.”
Elsewhere No. 10 Downing Street confirmed that Chloe Smith, who briefly returned to the Cabinet under the short-lived Liz Truss administration, will step up as science, innovation and technology secretary when she heads for maternity leave.
