Cummings over claims
OUSTED No 10 aide Dominic Cummings last night denied being the mole leaking Boris Johnson’s private messages and unleashed a bitter attack on his former boss.
Downing Street sources blamed the former adviser for the exchanges between the Prime Minister and businessman Sir James Dyson ending up in the media.
But Mr Cummings insisted he was not responsible and turned his fire on Mr Johnson.
In a statement running to more than 1,000 words, the political strategist said he was “not directly or indirectly a/the source for the BBC/
Kuenssberg story on the PM/ Dyson texts.”
The Prime Minister brushed off the attack by insisting the public “aren’t so much interested in who’s briefing what to whom” but rather the substance of the issue.
The messages revealed he promised Sir James he would “fix” a tax issue for Dyson staff working to develop ventilators early in the pandemic.
Mr Johnson said: “It was right to talk to him, it was right to talk to any British manufacturer as I did.” The PM previously stood by Mr Cummings when his old adviser was in the eye of a media storm after driving his family to County Durham during last year’s first lockdown.
But the former Vote Leave strategist was later forced out of Downing Street in a power struggle with Mr Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds.
In his blogpost, Mr Cummings also denied being the “chatty rat” who caused chaos by leaking details of the second lockdown.
He claimed the PM was told all the evidence pointed to Henry Newman, who was a special adviser to Cabinet