The Daily Telegraph

The inside story of the sacking of Sonia Khan

- Chief Political Correspond­ent By Christophe­r Hope

THERE was nothing unusual about the message Sonia Khan, a Treasury adviser, received at around 6pm on Thursday: please come for a meeting at No 10 with Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief adviser.

Miss Khan arrived in Downing Street at around 7.45pm, perhaps expecting an early horizon-scanning meeting ahead of her boss Sajid Javid’s announceme­nt of the Spending Round in the Commons next Wednesday.

The 27-year-old special adviser was one of dozens of “spads” who act as the “eyes and ears” of their ministers in Whitehall. Despite her relative youth, she was something of a Whitehall veteran who commanded a salary of between £53,000 and £70,000 a year, having worked at four department­s as well as in No10 since joining the Government in 2014.

Waiting for Miss Khan in a small room outside the Prime Minister’s office was Mr Cummings, 20 years her senior and the mastermind of Vote Leave’s victory in the 2016 referendum.

But rather than running through the forecasts for budget increases for department­s for the next financial year, the meeting took an unexpected turn.

Mr Cummings demanded to know if Miss Khan had been in contact with Philip Hammond, the former chancellor who is now engaged in open political warfare with Boris Johnson over his determinat­ion to take the UK out of the European Union by the end of October.

Earlier this month, No10 blamed a group of rebel Tories led by Mr Hammond for leaking details no-deal planning under Operation Yellowhamm­er. Mr Hammond denied involvemen­t.

Miss Khan said she had not spoken with Mr Hammond since she started work for Mr Javid. Mr Cummings then asked if she had seen one of Mr Hammond’s former aides recently.

She replied that she had met the aide for a “social engagement” in Westminste­r just a fortnight ago. To show willing, she handed her personal and work mobile phones to Mr Cummings.

He then found that she had also spoken to the ex-aide a week ago by telephone and accused her of lying. Miss Khan said she thought Mr Cummings had only asked when the pair had met.

Mr Cummings reportedly told Ms Khan “you know what you have done”, and sacked her on the spot. The meeting lasted just 10 minutes.

Mr Cummings left the room and sent an armed policeman to accompany Miss Khan out of No 10. She was taken to the gate at the end of Downing Street and asked to surrender her pass. She then returned to the Treasury where a civil servant accompanie­d her to her desk so she could retrieve her personal effects.

The speed of Miss

Khan’s removal had been startling. Most extraordin­ary of all, Mr Javid was only told after it happened. A friend of the Chancellor described Miss Khan as “an excellent spad and a true believer in Brexit”.

Miss Khan is now the fifth aide – four of them women – to be forced out of senior roles advising ministers in the first four weeks of Mr Johnson’s administra­tion. One female spad lasted just a fortnight in the Treasury. Two other young female advisers moved to No10 with Mr Johnson, before leaving abruptly after just three weeks.

A fifth spad, Luke Tryl, who was set to be special adviser to Nicky Morgan, the Culture Secretary, had his appointmen­t blocked by Downing Street. There is no suggestion any of these advisers were suspected of leaking.

Government sources made clear that Miss Khan was not suspected of leaking the Yellowhamm­er document.

Miss Khan, who was said to be “shaken” at losing the job she loved, declined to comment. But her friends are appalled at her treatment.

One friend said: “It is an unpleasant atmosphere. Since Dominic Cummings

‘Since Dominic Cummings came in, the corridors of Whitehall are riddled with paranoia and fear’

came in, the corridors of Whitehall are riddled with paranoia and fear, and it is a fear culture he is trying to put in place. What is [his] problem? What, does he get his kicks from firing young female spads?”

Last night, No10 refused to answer The Daily Telegraph’s questions about Mr Cummings’ treatment of Miss Khan. A spokesman said: “As a matter of policy we do not comment on individual staffing and personnel matters.” Mr Johnson entered No 10 determined to put an end to the leaks that damaged Theresa May’s government. Mr Cummings, whose own appointmen­t as an adviser to Michael Gove when education secretary in 2010 was itself blocked by No 10, has brought the passion and vigour to his job that he demonstrat­ed so ably on the Vote Leave campaign.

He had given warning of what was coming when he told aides at a meeting on July 26 that there was a new “one-strike policy” on leaks. One source said “He was firm – if you leak you are gone.” Mr Cummings even reportedly told the group that if any of them tried to take him to an employment tribunal, “you will be dead to me”.

It was unclear last night whether Miss Khan will take up his challenge. But any lawyer might question her treatment and why a 27-yearold senior ministeria­l adviser with five years’ experience had to be marched out of No10 in full public view by an armed policeman.

 ??  ?? Sonia Khan, a special adviser to Sajid Javid with five years’ experience in Whitehall, has been sacked by Dominic Cummings, left
Sonia Khan, a special adviser to Sajid Javid with five years’ experience in Whitehall, has been sacked by Dominic Cummings, left
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