British PM May appoints Dominic Raab as new Brexit minister

“The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Dominic Raab MP as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union,” a statement from May’s office said.

Raab was previously a minister for housing.

Raab, 44, was elected to parliament in 2010 and has served in a range of different junior ministerial roles.

Raab campaigned for Brexit ahead of the 2016 referendum on Britain’s EU membership.

In June, Raab spoke about Brexit to The House magazine:

“What we’ve got to do as a government and as a parliamentary party and indeed as a country, is show that we are bigger than the sum of our parts. If we take a bit more of that approach, a bit more unity of purpose, we’ll get a great result out of Brexit. We’ll also unite the country.”

He also told the magazine he thought pro-Brexit lawmakers should show flexibility when it comes to the final Brexit deal:

“I think if we’re true to our promises that we’ve made in our manifesto – and the mandate that we got from the referendum, which was to take back control over our borders, our laws and our money – I think we ought to on the Brexit side be flexible about the bridge to that end state.”

Speaking of his concerns for the negotiations, he said:

“One thing I get nervous about, or anxious, is that we don’t cower in a corner, so fixated on the risk that we look somehow afraid of our own shadow. Britain is a hell of a lot better than that.”

He studied law at both Oxford and Cambridge, and went on to work for city law firm Linklaters, working on project finance, international litigation and competition law. Prior to becoming a member of parliament, he also worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth office.

Most recently he was the government’s housing minister, a high-profile appointment following the Grenfell Tower apartment block fire in London, in which 71 people died. He previously served as a justice department minister and the minister for civil liberties.

He has written or co-written several books. His first, published in 2009 was focused on the defense of human rights and civil liberties.

Raab’s diary secretary was suspended and sparked a security investigation earlier this year after being accused of offering selling sex online to older men. The aide told an undercover reporter at the Mirror newspaper that she knew the minister’s every move and organized his life.

She also revealed that he eats the same chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, fruit pot and smoothie for lunch every day.

Raab holds a black belt in karate, according to his own website.