PM’s judgment is questionable
DEAR Editor, With now no parliamentary majority and a further 22 Tory MPs ejected from the party, the appointment of the controversial Dominic Cummings, previously found in contempt of Parliament and with a history of simmering feuds with other Brexiteers, to a key position increasingly looks extremely reckless and perverse of Boris Johnson.
Johnson thought it appropriate that Cummings, a great fan of Russia, should be installed in the heart of government. This, despite Cummings’ refusal to testify before the parliamentary committee investigating foreign influence and voter manipulation of the Brexit vote.
But it is the divisive Cummings’ feuds with fellow Brexiteers which will alienate the Prime Minister’s key parliamentary supporters.
He has called the eurosceptic pressure group of Tory MPs, the European Research Group, “a narcissist-delusional subset... spouting gibberish about trade and law” and described the former Brexit Secretary, David Davies as being as “thick as mince, lazy as a toad”.
He has declared “some Eurosceptic MPs were tumours who should be excised” from UK politics.
Beyond Parliament he has stated the overwhelming majority of economists and ‘trade experts’ who brand themselves proBrexit, “live in parallel universes and... spin fantasies”.
Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, says Cummings thinks “we’re all cretins and members of the lower orders”. Farage has said “the appointment of Cummings makes any prospect of co-operation seem very difficult”.
That looks to severely hamper any likely General Election scenario.
Boris Johnson’s mandate was already questionable: 65.8 million of the UK had no say in him becoming Prime Minister.
He even refused to engage with much of the electoral processes in the Tory leader elections. It seems his judgment and strategy are also very questionable.
Andrew Milroy, by email