GRANT SHAPPS has said it’s important that an independent investigation into bullying allegations linked to Dominic Raab is allowed to take place.
Speaking to Camilla Tominey Today on GB News, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “There’s a reason for having an independent investigation into these things. I don’t want to see a situation where the moment someone says something everyone says ‘oh well that’s it they should be suspended’. You’ve got to have a proper process in place and that’s what this process gives us; someone looking at all of this properly.
“I can only say from personal experience I’ve only ever seen him [Dominc Raab] being very polite not only to me but to other officials in the room. He’s certainly very determined and he knows what he wants to get out of the system. I think the investigation will get to the bottom of all of that.
“I don’t think anybody would think it was fair if someone or a series of people made accusations – and there are a series of people who say that’s not true – was all it took to get you suspended and potentially destroy your career. And I’m not talking about a politician, I’m talking about anyone here. It is right to follow a proper process and not to jump to a conclusion without ever having heard any of the evidence.”
Discussing an essay from former Prime Minister Liz Truss in the Sunday Telegraph Mr Shapps continued: “I think that Liz’s instincts are very Conservative in the sense that we want to see taxes lowered over a period of time.
“But I think everyone recognises we’ve been through hell with coronavirus, which added £400bn at least to expenditure and we’ve then had a war in Ukraine which has pushed up energy prices and inflation and been very, very costly.
“We’re paying right now about a third of people’s energy prices thanks to Liz Truss putting that in place for households and for business. All of that costs money and we need to deal with that, we need to deal with the high inflation and grow the economy and bring down debt and we’ll be able to cut down taxes as well, but we need to do it in that order.
“No one predicted coronavirus and the enormous cost to individuals and economies, and no one wanted to see Putin illegally invade Ukraine, and these are expensive things. What is happening to us is what is happening to the rest of the world in the West as well. It’s expensive for lots of economies and it would have been the same no matter who was in power.
“The difference is our instinct is to make sure we get the budget under control and we’re doing that, and not just the economic measures I just discussed but also cutting the NHS waiting lists, stopping the small boats – something by the way Labour voted against every single time they’ve been given the opportunity.”
Meanwhile, as the Conservative party moves closer towards the deadline of 40 new hospitals by 20230, Mr Shapps defended the Government’s record saying : “Let’s wait and see. Often it was building and refurbishing hospitals and there’s a huge amount of work underway.
“We’re putting record amounts into the NHS, the big priority right now is to cut the waiting lists that built up during coronavirus when everyone was stuck at home.
“We’re making progress there as well, we’ve got rid of the two year waiting list and we’re on target to get rid of the 18-month waiting list by this April. We are making a lot of progress.”
