Dowden Becomes UK Deputy PM After Raab’s Resignation

Oliver Dowden has been named as the deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom on Friday, April 21.

He replaced Dominic Raab who resigned on Friday following a case of bullying staff during his time in government.

TORI reports that Raab, who also quit as justice secretary, said in a resignation letter he felt “duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry” but said it “dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me”.

Sunak’s appointment of Dowden as deputy prime minister cements his reputation in government as the prime minister’s right-hand man, after a stint in the Cabinet Office where he was responsible for coordinating the government’s response to winter strikes.

Dowden was culture, media and sport secretary for 18 months in Boris Johnson’s government, during which time he provided emergency funding for the arts during the pandemic and also banned Huawei from UK 5G networks, the Guardian UK reports.

Also, lawmaker Alex Chalk was appointed new justice minister, a position which was previously held by Raab.