It was announced today that Dominic Raab will return as Secretary of State for Justice. This follows the resignation of Brandon Lewis that I reported on earlier this afternoon.
In that piece for subscribers I made some comments about the possibility of a new face at the Department of Justice and, as far as I see it, there are two good things to come out of the appointment:
Raab is not Suella Braverman.
Raab has held the position before and was in post only a couple of months ago so offers a degree of continuity.
Those mild advantages come with caveats.
Braverman would indeed have been a disastrous appointment but she now instead returns to the Home Office. Given that her resignation letter from that same post a few days ago complained about the lack of movement on controversial immigration policies like the agreement with Rwanda it might be that part of her agreement to return to government means that she will be able to pursue that policy to the fullest extent of the law.
Secondly Raab's return does offer consistency but that is about as much as we can expect from a Justice Secretary who is more interested in his other title, Deputy PM.
It should be remembered that when the dispute between the Criminal Bar Association and the government was ongoing, Raab was more interested in litigating that through the front page of the Daily Express rather than in negotiations. It was Brandon Lewis who eventually sat down at the table and reached an agreement.
Raab's return also likely means a return of his ill-fated human rights reforms. The Bill of Rights looked like it might fade into obscurity but this pet project might now be pursued as Raab returns to cabinet.
It could have been worse but people would still be right to worry about what the future holds.
"consistency". Ah, so he'll be using his same old sound bite scripts.