Robert Buckland admits spat with Raab over British bill of rights but insists they've 'moved on'
6 February 2023, 07:49 | Updated: 6 February 2023, 07:51
Ex-Cabinet Minister admits spat with Raab over British bill of rights
Former Cabinet minister Sir Robert Buckland has acknowledged that he had "a disagreement" with Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab over an article he wrote criticising the British bill of rights, but they have "moved on now".
When asked whether it was true that Mr Raab said Mr Buckland would have to be sacked or resign if the Daily Telegraph article were published, the Tory MP told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC: "I don't want to rake back through the coals of what happened last summer.
"Dominic and I have a disagreement about his bill of rights, clearly he wasn't going to agree with the article that I did write in the Telegraph.
"I was talking about the Government to come - that is the Government post-Boris Johnson, and felt that it was entirely appropriate to do that.
"There are robust disagreements in politics. I'm old enough and ugly enough to hold my own corner, and Dominic is known for his robustness as well. There was a disagreement, but we've moved on.
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"I very much hope that the bill of rights is radically reformed, by the way, and that we have a more measured set of reforms, and that debate will carry on."
The conversation comes after a report by the Times newspaper claiming the Justice Secretary had tried to get Robert Buckland sacked as Welsh secretary in August after he publicly criticised Raab’s British bill of rights.
Raab had told Buckland during a phone call not to go ahead with an article he was due to write for The Daily Telegraph or he would report him to Downing Street for breaking the ministerial code on collective cabinet responsibility.
