Who is Dominic Raab, the man now in charge?
LONDON: The man deputising for the coronavirus-stricken British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a 46-year-old former lawyer, an ardent Brexiteer and a black belt in karate, who until three years ago was not in government but now leads the UK government from 10, Downing Street.
Educated in Oxford and Cambridge, British foreign secretary Dominic Raab was first elected in 2010 from Esher and Walton in Surrey, and held a junior ministerial role in the governments led by former PMS David Cameron and Theresa May, before being promoted as the Brexit secretary by May.
He resigned in protest against May’s Brexit deal in December 2018 and returned as foreign secretary when Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, dealing with India in his key role, particularly during the violence outside the Indian high commission in the UK late last year.
Raab then interacted with India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar, deploring the violence outside the mission, but also telling lawmakers in the British House of Commons that the Kashmir dispute has implications for human rights.
Before entering politics, Raab, son of a Czech-born Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis in 1938, was a lawyer for the UK’S Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and appeared for numerous clients in international and competition law.
He ran against Johnson to become leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister in 2019, criticising his personality style as “bluff and bluster”, but was e l i minated i n e arl i e r rounds. He is married to Brazilian marketing executive Erika Ray and the couple have two sons.
Before entering parliament in 2010 Raab also worked for Britain’s diplomatic service, including a vital posting in The Hague, working on bringing war criminals t o j ustice. He has also advised the UK government on the Arab-israeli conflict and counterterrorism.