The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cummings leaves Number 10 amid reports he has quit
The prime minister’s chief a d v i s e r, D om i n i c Cummings, was seen leaving No 10 carrying a box yesterday evening amid reports he had quit his post with immediate effect.
Last night it was reported that both he and fellow Vote Leave veteran Lee Cain, who resigned as communications chief earlier in the week, would still be employed until the middle of next month, although Mr Cummings would be working from home.
Sir Edward Lister was announced as the interim chief of staff pending a permanent appointment.
The news came amid a bitter power struggle and in-fighting in No 10 over the past few days, which started with Mr Cain’s resignation announcement on Wednesday.
On Thursday night, Mr Cummings insisted that “rumours of me threatening to resign are invented” after it was suggested he would also exit in protest.
But he also said his “position hasn’t changed since my January blog” in which he said he hoped to be “largely redundant” by 2021.
The Sun reported a “shouty ” confrontation between Boris Johnson and Mr Cummings over the ousting of Mr Cain on Thursday, and that a “livid” prime minister wanted both out “sooner rather than later”.
The BBC reported that Mr Cummings’ departure had been brought forward given the “upset in the team”, and that the PM wanted to “clear the air and move on”.
Tory backbenchers urged No 10 to use the exit of the aide, whose mid-lockdown trip to Durham cemented his n o t o r i e t y, as an opportunity to restore the values of “respect, integrity and trust”.
Senior To r y MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said: “It’s an opportunity to reset how the government operates and to emphasise some values about what we want to project as a Conservative Pa r t y in government.
“No prime minister can afford a single adviser to become a running story, dom inat ing h is g o v e rnm en t ’ s communications and crowding out the messages the government wants to convey.”
Gavin Barwell, former chief of staff to then-Prime Minister T heresa May, tweeted: “Boris now has an opportunity to get a more harmonious, e ff e c t i v e Downing Street operation (like he had at City Hall); improve relations with the parliamentary party; and lead a less confrontational, more unifying government
that better reflects his own character.”
Mr Cummings is a polarising figure in the Conservative party. As the leader of the Vote Leave campaign, he orchestrated both the Brexit vote in 2016, and helped Mr Johnson secure the party’s largest majority in 30 years at last year’s election.
But members of the Scottish Conser vatives found him a difficult figure to agree with, particularly after the “Barnard Castle eye test” episode.
Party leader Douglas Ross resigned as undersecretary of state for Scotland after Mr Cummings’ digression came to light, while former leader Jackson Carlaw called on him to quit.
“It tells you everything you need to know about this arrogant, incompetent and self-serving To r y
government that they are d i tch ing the ir responsibilities – at the exact moment their reckless decisions are causing the maximum damage to people across the UK,” he said.
In-fighting at the heart of government led to Mr Cain’s resignation. He had been offered the post of chief of staff but a backlash among To r i e s and Mr Johnson’s inner circle sealed his departure.
The prime minister ’s spokesman, James Slack, who will replace Mr Cain when he leaves in the new year, continued to insist that Mr Johnson is not being distracted from the national crisis by the row.
“What the prime minister and the government are focused upon is taking every possible step to get this country through the pandemic,” he said.