‘Those Jedi mind tricks don’t work on me’: Dominic Raab on Truss, Sunak and his own future

If Liz Truss is named prime minister next week, her administration will look rather different to the government of the past few years. Rishi Sunak has suggested he won’t accept any job offer. Michael Gove, a Sunak supporter, has pre-emptively ruled himself out. Other prominent backers are expected to join the pair on the backbenches – such as the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab.

Truss’s allies say he deserves what’s coming his way for having likened her economic plans of immediate tax cuts to an ‘electoral suicide note’. Yet for a man on political death row, Raab is remarkably cheery when we meet at The Spectator’s offices. ‘Those Jedi mind tricks don’t work on me,’ he says about the rumours of his demise. ‘I used to think that if someone briefs against you, it is just them who is rattled.’ And his quote, he adds, really wasn’t that bad in context.

Instead, he wants to focus on unity. He’s not yet given up on the idea that Sunak could win – there are ‘enough undecideds for it to still be worth champing at the bit’ – but whatever the outcome, he says he will support the government. Shouldn’t it be assumed he’d find it hard to serve a woman whose agenda he has so sharply criticised, though? ‘No, I wouldn’t assume that,’ he says. ‘I’ll focus on supporting Rishi and it’s all to play for, but I think the key thing for me is that it is a robust contest and then the party unites.’

The Conservatives do have a shared threat to unite against: the prospect of electoral annihilation. Raab’s seat, Esher and Walton, is among the top ten Liberal Democrat targets at the next general election. Raab is clear it is safer under Sunak. ‘They want inflation brought down, they want to see mortgage rates not rising to exponential levels and they want to see green-belt protection. He’s been the most consistent,’ he says. ‘I do think Rishi has got stronger resonance in those Blue Wall seats, certainly in mine.’

Ten years ago, he was one of five newbie MPs – including Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng – to pen Britannia Unchained, which put forward a neo-Thatcherite manifesto. The group share the royalties (‘they are not enormous’) but have little in common on economics these days. What’s changed? ‘Read chapter one of Britannia Unchained. It is all about debt, and funnily enough it was one of the chapters we genuinely all worked very closely together on,’ he says. ‘Sound money is the no. 1 principle. You cannot keep racking up these debts! The impact of unfunded spending is inflation. So let me gently suggest that I’ve stayed true to the philosophy of Britannia Unchained – the movement may have been from others!’

Another old principle he has stayed true to is the belief that refugees should be allowed to work while they wait for their claim to be processed. At the last count, there were 95,800 asylum seekers in Britain, 70,100 of whom have been kept waiting more than six months to have their case heard. Add their dependents, and that’s 118,000 being kept at the taxpayers’ expense.

Raab says all this needs reform, and that they should be given a National Insurance number pending their hearings. ‘I say this as a son of a refugee: there are two things you can do other than get through the claims as quickly as possible. Allow them to work in a way that doesn’t become a pull factor, and [teach them] the English language.’ The Ukrainian refugee scheme is hitting a crunch point, as the initial six-month placements end. Raab talks excitedly about refugees from Ukraine converting their qualifications so they can work as doctors and dentists as they did back at home.

He likens the plight of Ukrainian refugees to the Hong Kong Chinese. As foreign secretary, he opened a new visa route for the ‘British Nationals Overseas’ to settle in the UK. ‘I visited a summer camp recently in my constituency, where three BNO children had settled, and obviously I didn’t want to make them feel totally self-conscious but it was very moving seeing them and their parents there,’ he says. ‘I think it was morally the right thing to do, but it was a good example of the government working very effectively together… working with Rishi to fund it all, and also Priti, and that took ages and we were doing it in anticipation of the worst while hoping for the best – but I think it’s a good example of global Britain at its best.’

The courts backlog is almost as bad as that for asylum. But Raab heralds some achievements with ex-offenders. ‘The two big things with the prison population is getting them off drugs and, secondly, into work,’ he says. The first part is being tackled by making sure methadone transition for heroin users is temporary. ‘I had a prisoner governor round-table and they said: look, there’s not much you can do with an offender that’s on methadone.’ The second big change in approach is to say that offenders need a second chance. ‘We’re not talking about murderers and rapists. We have increased by two-thirds the number in work within six months of release.’

Does Raab regret criticising Truss? ‘We ought to be having robust discussions, and I have never attacked any one person,’ he says. ‘It has always been my hallmark as a politician. Whoever the next prime minister is will be strengthened by having tested ideas so rigorously. We have to show the humility and magnanimity to come back together.’

Leadership elections are always mini civil wars. Raab’s fate may indicate whether the Tories really are capable of coming together – or whether the bitterness from this contest will endure.