DOMINIC Raab oversaw a “perverse culture of fear” at the Ministry of Justice, according to a group of civil servants who worked under the Deputy Prime Minister. 

The Tory frontbencher is accused of leaving his officials in tears, and binning briefings because they were not formatted in the correct style.

Details of the complaint - revealed in the Times  - come a day after the Prime Minister agreed to an independent investigation into bullying claims made against Mr Raab

The letter was initially submitted by a group of mid-ranking officials in March. It was re-submitted this week as a formal complaint.

They complain that Mr Raab’s communication style is “often abrupt, rude and can be upsetting”.

“There have been multiple recent examples of colleagues being left in tears after being on the receiving end of this inappropriate behaviour.

“We are extremely worried about the perverse culture of fear that is clearly permeating this department… We are proud of the work we do here, but the tangible shift towards a dysfunctional working culture is starting to hinder that”, the complaint says.

“The combination of the pressure of work and unreasonable deadlines has had such an impact on some colleagues’ mental and physical health that they have visited their GPs, and some have subsequently been signed off work for extended periods of time. 

“Colleagues have confided in [each other] that they have been reluctant to be signed off due to the impact that this would have on their other team members.”

The officials said they were being “asked to deliver everything at pace and many of the unreasonably short deadlines are arbitrarily imposed by ministers and [special advisers] without clear justification.

"These deadlines are not one-offs but are constant and unrelenting.

“This is causing significant, undue pressure on colleagues, who are routinely working well beyond their contracted working hours in order to meet demands placed upon them.”

Even when their work was submitted, the officials said they would as a matter of course “anticipate harsh criticism and rudeness on the basis of the quality of the work.”

This meant “that clearance processes are extremely lengthy due to this nervousness also being felt at more senior levels within the line management chain.”

Meanwhile, Politico reported that Mr Raab had particular standards over the formatting of ministerial submissions, and would dismiss any that were not formatted correctly. 

They claim he created a grading regime for submissions, and civil service bosses would be held responsible if their team received regular low grades.

Yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister told the Commons he was “confident” that he had “behaved professionally throughout.”

Downing Street said that work has begun to appoint the investigator, who will be someone from outside the government.