[6] Raab attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham,[9] and spent a brief period as a volunteer on a kibbutz[10] before studying law at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where he captained the university karate team.

[12][13] During his time as a lawyer in the Civil Service under the Labour Government until 2006, Raab's briefs included leading a team at the British Embassy in The Hague, dedicated to bringing war criminals to justice in a position closely linked to Tony Blair.

[20][21] In July 2010, Raab criticised the government for opting into the EU directive on the European Investigation Order, arguing it would strain operational policing resources, and would dilute safeguards protecting British citizens from misuse of personal data and guaranteeing a fair trial.

In January 2012, Raab spoke in support of the coalition government's plans to cut the budget deficit, expand academy schools, repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006, and enact a Freedom Bill.

[36] In February 2018, Raab advertised for an unpaid intern just ahead of a Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) publication responding to the Taylor review on insecure work.

[45] In late October 2017, a dossier listing allegations of a mainly sexual nature against several dozen Conservative MPs made internally by party researchers was circulated at Westminster and amongst journalists.

A document published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government shows that the finding was based on an out-of-date model that had never been intended for this kind of analysis.

[54] According to a BBC News report, Raab was concerned with "two major and fatal flaws" in the draft agreement, namely that the proposed terms "threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom" and that "they would lead to an indefinite if not permanent situation where the UK is locked into a regime with no say over the rules being applied, with no exit mechanism", flaws which would prove "damaging for the economy but devastating for public trust in our democracy".

[59] This bill reflects commitments which the UK entered into for the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework for the years 2014–2020 and so according to some interpretations is not linked to Britain's exit from the European Union.

"[68] The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, in a letter to Raab said the UK position "is damaging to Britain's reputation, undermines your credibility and moral authority".

[82] After the 30 June 2020 imposition by the Xi Jinping regime of the national security law in Hong Kong, Raab described the following day in the Commons what he saw as a "grave and deeply disturbing" event, dissected the affront to the Sino-British Joint Declaration in the Commons, and announced a new chapter in Hong Kong–United Kingdom relations with substantial changes to the idea of British National (Overseas) permits.

"[88] In March 2020, Raab visited the mausoleum of the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and called Turkey a "staunch ally in NATO and one of its largest contributors of military personnel."

[89] On 6 October, Raab warned that the result of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan may be the strengthening of relations between Russia and Turkey, saying that a "battle for geopolitical stances is in progress.

[92] Unnamed sources told The Guardian Raab refused to talk to some Foreign Office staff and this allegedly caused problems during the Afghanistan evacuation.

[93] On 20 August 2021, Labour MP Kevin Brennan accused Rabb of hypocrisy by refusing to be contacted and remaining on holiday in Crete while Kabul fell to the Taliban, despite having previously co-authored the book Britannia Unchained[94] which criticized British workers by calling them the "worst idlers in the world".

[105] Allegations against Raab included claims that he lost his temper at work and left staff scared to enter his office and that his behaviour was "abrasive and controlling".

[106] After Raab had been notified about the two formal complaints, he asked Sunak to commission an independent investigation, saying that he would "thoroughly rebut and refute" the claims against him, that he had "never tolerated bullying" and was confident that he had "behaved professionally throughout".

[105] Adam Tolley KC was appointed to undertake the investigation, while the responsibility to decide whether Raab had breached the ministerial code of conduct would remain with Sunak.

[110] The former Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, Lord McDonald was interviewed on LBC Radio and said that he had spoken to Raab on several occasions about the way he treated staff.

[104]: 16-17,22 The report, which was handed to Sunak on 20 April 2023, found that on occasion, both at the Ministry of Justice and at the Foreign Office, Raab's conduct towards civil servants had crossed the threshold between abrasive and bullying.

[113][104]: 40  As far as the Brexit Office complaint was concerned, the report found that Raab's behaviour was intimidating but not offensive, malicious or insulting and so did not meet the threshold for bullying.

"[121] On 10 February 2011, Raab gave the winding-up speech in the debate on whether to give prisoners the vote, arguing that freedom entails responsibility and that elected lawmakers in the House of Commons rather than "unaccountable" judges in Strasbourg should decide the matter.

The JCHR has called for safeguards to ensure warrants are not issued for minor offences and when there is minimal evidence, and for checks to prevent extradition for investigation rather than prosecution.

[131] In October 2018, Raab told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show that the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi was a "terrible case" but the UK government was "not throwing our hands in the air and terminating the relationship with Saudi Arabia, not just because of the huge number of British jobs that depend on it but also because if you exert influence over your partners you need to be able to talk to them...

[139] In an article in January 2011 on the Politics Home website, Raab argued in favour of transferable paternity leave and against "the equality bandwagon ... pitting men and women against each other".

[144] Theresa May, who was Minister for Women and Equalities at the time, criticised Raab's "obnoxious bigots" comment but agreed with his suggestions on paternity leave and ending gender warfare.

[151] In October 2011, Dominic Raab and four other MPs of the 2010 intake published After the Coalition, an argument that Conservative principles adapted to the modern world would be essential for the future national success of the party.

[152] In November 2011, Raab wrote a pamphlet published by the Centre for Policy Studies, Escaping the Strait Jacket – Ten Regulatory Reforms to Create Jobs.

[95] Raab called for measures to cut regulation on start-up companies, expand vocational training, reduce childcare costs and lower marginal (income-focused) rates of taxation to "rediscover and reward the lost virtue of hard-work – a tried and tested route to individual success, a more prosperous economy and a fairer society.

"[155] Writing on work ethic in The Daily Telegraph, Raab said that longer periods in education, earlier retirement, welfare dependency and high marginal rates of taxation had led to a situation where "(w)e have a smaller proportion of the workforce pedalling harder to sustain the rest – which is economically debilitating and socially divisive.