Former British minister Dominic Raab, who left the Government on Friday after being accused of workplace harassment, removed the United Kingdom ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliot, from the negotiations on Gibraltar during his time at Foreign Affairs, after he allegedly transgressed with his proposed lines marked from London, according to sources cited by the 'Daily Telegraph'.
The newspaper, which already published a forum on Friday in which Raab defended all his behaviors, sheds new details on one of the most delicate points of the ex-minister's curriculum, who has recognized that among the matters investigated were alleged excesses in the previous months. to the agreement that set the framework for Gibraltar after Brexit at the end of 2020.
Raab admitted that a “high diplomat” had gone too far and made “personnel changes” at a key moment in the negotiations with Spain. “I discovered that a key negotiator had exceeded the democratic mandate set by the Government, putting the sovereignty of the United Kingdom at risk,” he said in his rostrum.
According to the story of the 'Telegraph', prepared from people around Raab and from the formal investigation, the then Foreign Minister was aware of an alleged offer related to the Spanish presence in Gibraltar. Spain, as the gateway to the Schengen area, has always defended that there should be a Police, in principle accompanied by the European agency Frontex.
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Raab summoned Elliot in November 2020, for a meeting that would have been key to the subsequent complaint.. The ambassador continued in his post – he continues to be the diplomatic representative of the United Kingdom in Spain to this day – but was removed from the negotiations, to which Simon Manley, former ambassador in Madrid, joined.
The changes also affected the Foreign Office, with a new person in charge of the office directly supervising talks relating to Gibraltar.
The investigation carried out on Raab after the accusations found excessive behavior that would have even meant humiliation for the official, whom the official document does not identify in any case.. He also sees it as a “threat” that the former minister came to raise at another time resorting to the Civil Service Code as punishment.
When presenting his resignation, in his public letter to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, Raab stressed that a senior official must be able to be critical of his subordinates and exercise “direct supervision” when there are relevant situations, as happened in his case “in the negotiations of Brexit on Gibraltar, when a senior diplomat broke the mandate agreed by the Cabinet”.
Despite the controversy, the former minister did clarify that the changes introduced did not imply long-term damage and, in fact, he considers that it was “essential” for the so-called New Year's Eve Agreement to be signed, which on December 31, 2020 established a first regulatory framework around Gibraltar just a few hours before the deadline set by Brexit expired.