Why the appointment of Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary is so troubling

Dominic Raab has become the eighth Justice Secretary in ten years. Sacked from the Foreign Office following his disastrous handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, Raab is still deemed competent enough to oversee our justice system, prisons and, as Lord Chancellor, act as protector of constitutional propriety. His career to date, and decisions made in office, suggest that those interested in saving the justice system, human rights and decency in our prison system should be concerned.

Raab likes to portray himself as a profound legal thinker – he was a junior lawyer for a few years before working for the Conservative Party. In reality, he is an outdated bigot. On Black Lives Matter, he was unable, or perhaps unwilling, to appreciate the symbolic nature of those who took the knee, saying he thought it was a reference to a TV show – Games of Thrones – before glibly stating he would only take the knee for his ‘Mrs or the Queen’. Will Raab work to confront racism within the justice system? Don’t hold your breath.

He has written pieces bemoaning “the equality bandwagon”. In an offensive and bizarre article, he argued that “from the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal”. He said that “men work longer hours, die earlier, but retire later than women”, ignoring the gender pay gap or the fact two women are murdered by partners or former partners each week, or the lack of female representation on company boards, or in his own political party (the list could go on). It is difficult to believe he will prioritise ending violence against women, or working with female prisoners, once he gets his feet under the table.

Considering his attitude to equality, it comes as no surprise that Dominic Raab has a seemingly insatiable dislike for the Human Rights Act. He has spent much of his free time attacking it. Before entering parliament, he wrote a book entitled ‘The Assault on Liberty – What Went Wrong with Rights’, insinuating that the Human Rights Act was an interference with long-held freedoms, rather than an Act that protects them. Upon being elected as an MP, Raab wrote a pamphlet, ‘Strasbourg in the Dock’, offering a simplistic attack on the European Court of Human Rights. The government has already announced a review into the Human Rights Act before Raab’s appointment – led by Sir Peter Gross, the former Court of Appeal judge. It is yet to publish its findings, but Raab may not take the trouble of reading it any event. His views are clearly fully formed.

During his time as Foreign Secretary, Raab’s contempt for human rights was clear for all to see, despite his best efforts. As a leaked recording revealed, he was more than happy to enter into trade deals with regimes that breached human rights, all in the name of ‘global Britain’. Lisa Nandy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has repeatedly called for tougher action on China as a reaction to the genocide of the Uyghurs – pointing out that whilst he was swift to impose sanctions on Belarus after rigged elections, Raab “rolled out the red carpet” to Chinese diplomats in pursuit of a trade deal.

The appointment of Raab at Justice is more troubling because the situation in our justice system is so dire. Our prisons are overcrowded. Hundreds of courts have been closed over the last decade, leading to a huge backlogs, meaning criminal trials can often take four years to be resolved. Our probation service is in the midst of reform – after a disastrous attempt at privatisation. What is needed is a competent, sensible, reforming Justice Secretary. Instead, the Prime Minister has appointed the Foreign Secretary who went on holiday as the Taliban took Kabul.

Indeed, on prisons, Raab has already set out his position. In 2011, he wrote a pamphlet with our now Home Secretary, Priti Patel, that stated that “it has been argued in the past that instead of short prison sentences, there should be a presumption against sending criminals to prison. We should take exactly the opposite approach and ensure that persistent offenders are imprisoned for prolonged periods of time… we are not ashamed to say that prisons should be tough, unpleasant and uncomfortable.” All the evidence suggests that prison currently fails to offer effective rehabilitation, and by making them tougher, more unpleasant and more uncomfortable, re-offending would simply increase. Raab is a pound-shop Michael Howard, eager to please the Tory right and Daily Mail, and completely disconnected from reality. Bizarrely, on his first day in the job, he apparently prevented the Shadow Justice Secretary, David Lammy, from visiting a prison. Perhaps this is his plan – to simply ignore the problems in our prisons and aim to look ‘tough’.

It is not just that Raab is hopeless and offensive. Premier League managers now last longer in their roles when compared to Justice ministers. On prisons, the situation is crying out for a long-term strategy, to tackle over-crowding and the dilapidated prison estate. Yet we have had five appointments of new prison ministers in three years. There have been eight different ministers responsible for prisons since 2010. It is an after-thought, a role for a junior to fill before promotion.

The reshuffle in general revealed a government with a big majority but little purpose. Nadine Dorries has been promoted to the culture brief to fight culture wars. Michael Gove has been moved to housing to make progress on ‘levelling up’, after two years of the government attempting to work out what the slogan even means. Liz Truss is our new Foreign Secretary, after spending time organising photoshoots for essentially meaningless trade deals replacing deals we already had as members of the EU. She will now spend her time flying around the world waving the union jack to increasingly bemused foreign officials.

For Johnson, the justice brief is simply a soft landing for Raab. He had to be moved after the Afghanistan debacle. Johnson does not care about prison policy, or justice issues. He cares only of himself, his political future and keeping hold of power.